Sipekne’katik First Nation awarded an interim injunction “authorizing police to arrest anyone whose interference, blockades or threats keep the community from carrying out its fishery…

Chief Michael Sack has indicated that “The plan…includes conservation measures, regulations for the boats and their safety and compliance officers”. The main concern for the non-Indigenous fisherman is the sale of the lobsters outside of the regulated commercial fishing season; an issue that the band and community will address.

In the meantime, the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia insist that the laws of Canada must be obeyed. The Supreme Court of Canada’s September 17, 1999 decision in the DonaldMarshall case affirmed a treaty right to hunt, fish and gather in pursuit of a ‘moderate livelihood’, arising out of the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1760 and 1761.The Decision affected 34 Mi’kmaq and Maliseet First Nations in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and the Gaspé region of Quebec. (Government of Canada website, Sept, 2020.