The Mi’kmaq call the Avon River “Tooetunook,” which means “flowing square into the sea,” or more specifically, into the Minas Basin in the upper Bay of Fundy. Since 1970, when the Windsor causeway was constructed across the Avon, the river hasn’t exactly been able to “flow square” at all. That’s because the aboiteau — the […]
Independent inshore lobster fishers fear the Clearwater purchase could decimate their livelihoods
At a November 12 press conference, Sipekne’katik First Nation Chief Mike Sack announced that his Band was launching “hundreds” of lawsuits related to the way governments, some commercial fishers, and the RCMP reacted to its launch of its moderate livelihood fishery on September 17, the 21st anniversary of the landmark Marshall decision that affirmed Mi’kmaq […]
In Search of Common Ground: An interview with Arthur Bull about the lobster fishery crisis in St. Mary’s Bay
It’s been more than a month since the Sipekne’katik First Nation launched its own self-regulated lobster fishery off the Saulnierville wharf in Southwest Nova Scotia — 21 years after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Marshall decision, affirming the 1760-61 Treaty Rights of the Mi’kmaq to fish for a “moderate livelihood.” For weeks […]
Lobster fishery at a crossroads
Part 3: What are the prospects for the Atlantic lobster fishery?
On September 17, 2020, the Sipekne’katik First Nation finally launched its own self-regulated moderate livelihood lobster fishery off the Saulnierville wharf on the shores of St. Mary’s Bay in Southwest Nova Scotia. It had been 21 years since the Marshall decision, when the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the 1760-61 Treaty Rights of the Mi’kmaq […]
Lobster fishery at a crossroads
Part 2: Tensions over a moderate livelihood fishery are hiding a much bigger threat to the inshore
On October 1, hundreds of Mi’kmaq and their allies held a mawio’mi to celebrate Treaty Day on the wharf in Saulnierville on St. Mary’s Bay in Southwest Nova, where crews from Sipekne’katik First Nation were almost two weeks into their new “moderate livelihood” fishery, affirmed as their Treaty right by the 1999 Supreme Court of […]
Lobster fishery at a crossroads
Part 1: It’s been 20 years since the Marshall decision, so why is there still no moderate livelihood fishery?
Ten years after Donald Marshall Jr. was found to be wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 11 years for a murder he did not commit — in a case that a Royal Commission determined was the result of racist attitudes and incompetence on the part of the police and others in the justice system that had […]
A moderate livelihood
Morning File, Monday, September 21, 2020
News 1. Northwood review announcement coming today The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage free. What will health minister Randy Delorey announce today? Who knows? Whatever it is, Stephen Kimber is not expecting anything too earth-shattering. In his weekly Halifax Examiner column, Kimber writes: [Delorey] may unveil some part of some pre-selected, non-binding recommendations […]
Court hears Sipekne’katik appeal of Alton Gas decision
How much consultation is enough when it comes to approving development on land where First Nations claim — but have not received — title to Crown land? That’s one of the thorny questions at the centre of the Sipekne’katik First Nation’s appeal of a decision by the Nova Scotia Minister of Environment which gave the...
Northern Pulp takes province to court: The saga continues
The unfolding saga of the 53-year-old Pictou County pulp mill operated by Northern Pulp Nova Scotia — a Paper Excellence company that is part of the corporate empire of the billionaire Widjaja family of Indonesia — continues to get “curiouser and curiouser” as Alice in Wonderland once remarked.
Yesterday afternoon, Northern Pulp issued a news release stating it will ask the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to undertake a judicial review of the Nova Scotia Environment Minister Gordon Wilson’s December 17, 2019 decision requiring the company to submit a full environmental assessment report before deciding to approve its proposed effluent treatment facility to […]
No federal assessment will be required for Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent treatment project
Yesterday, four days before his announcement was due on the Northern Pulp effluent treatment proposal, and less than 24 hours before the deadline for the provincial environment minister to announce his decision, federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson released a statement saying that he had “decided not to designate the Northern Pulp project […]