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Talks on, as
Canadian fish war simmers
United Press International HALIFAX, Nova
Scotia. Federal officials met with Indian chiefs from the Atlantic
provinces Monday to defuse a simmering fish war that erupted after
the Supreme Court of Canada upheld historic treaty rights of Maritime
Indians to hunt and fish year-round. Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault
accompanied federal special negotiator James MacKenzie to the talks
in Ottawa. MacKenzie was appointed last week to talk to Maritime Indian
chiefs and representatives of commercial fishermen, and find a solution
to the dispute. The talks began amid heightened tension after hundreds
of commercial fishermen in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, went out on a flotilla
of about 150 boats on the weekend to destroy a large number of lobster
traps they found in the water. The group said they wanted to send
a message to Ottawa that commercial fishermen would not tolerate off-season
lobster fishing. Chief Deborah Robinson, of the Acadia band of Micmac
Indians, said fishermen from her band had not set traps off Yarmouth,
and any traps found there were probably set illegally. The incident
passed without the violence and arson seen in the Burnt Church reserve
in New Brunswick earlier this month, when commercial fishermen destroyed
more than 2,000 traps set by Micmacs. However, Chief Lawrence Paul,
co-chair of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs,
said the attitude of the Yarmouth commercial fishermen disgusted him,
as Indians did have the right to hunt and fish year-round. ''The law
is on our side,'' Paul said. With the negotiations just starting between
the Indian chiefs and federal officials, he said the weekend action
of the commercial fishermen would harden the stand of the chiefs.
The dispute erupted after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Sept.
17 that a 1760 treaty between the British Crown and Maritime Indian
chiefs was still valid. The treaty gives Micmac, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy
Indians the right to hunt, fish and gather other resources year-round
to make a ''modest living.'' The commercial fishermen say they want
Indian fishermen to follow the same conservation rules as they do,
and not fish during off seasons. Micmac lawyer Adwin Bernard says
the treaty is not just about lobster fishing, but also includes hunting,
logging and mining, and the chiefs are now talking to experts before
pressing ahead in those areas as well.
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