September 14, 2000

I am, once again, shocked by developments at Miramichi near Burnt Church. There has been an unlawful and grossly excessive use of force against our people.

Three weeks ago I called for the federal government to call off its troops and deal with the real issue facing this country: an end to hundreds of years of unconstitutional discrimination, regulation, exclusion and dispossession of First Nations People across this country.

But there is a new dimension to this particular situation, of which we have just become aware.

With respect to the situation in Miramichi, there was a particular treaty entered into in September 1779 between the representatives of His Majesty King George and a number of "Mickmack" leaders including the leadership from "Miramichi". The circumstance was a fear that the "Mickmack" might ally themselves with the Americans.

In this 1779 treaty, King George affirms all previous treaties, including the treaty that was the subject matter of the Donald Marshall Junior case at the Supreme Court. In this particular treaty, the "Mickmack" make promises of peace and friendship, and undertake not to hold "correspondence or intercourse" with the King's rebels or enemies.

In return, the Crown undertakes "that the said Indians and their constituents shall remain... Quiet and free from any Molestation of any of His Majestys Troops... or other good subjects in their Hunting and Fishing."

This is a solemn promise of non-molestation. The Indians are promised by the Crown that its troops and its subjects would be restrained from interfering in the Indians' hunting and fishing.

The Crown also promised that "immediate measures would be taken to cause Traders to supply" the Indians with various trade goods "in exchange for their Fur and other Commoditys." This is clear. This treaty contemplates and confirms a commercial relationship with the Mi’kmaq.

For more than 220 years, the "Mickmacks" have kept their side of the bargain. There has been peace with the Crown, and no association with His or Her Majesty's enemies or rebels.

However, the Crown has not kept its side of the peace treaty. We have been excluded from the fishery and from hunting. Our people are now unable to "Subsyst" their "familys" as they were promised in the treaty of 1779. And as seen on the waters in Miramichi, the molestation by Her Majesty's troops continues.

The federal government is acting as if has an unrestricted and unilateral right to regulate the fishery to the virtual exclusion of First Nations Peoples. The Department of Fisheries is perpetuating and extending an illegal regime that the Supreme Court has held to be invalid.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly said this is wrong. In Marshall, Sparrow, Gladstone, Adams and Delgamuuk’w, to name just a few cases. We say it is wrong. 90% unemployment on First Nations Peoples reserves says it is wrong.

The federal government, if it is to behave honourably and lawfully, must obey Criminal Code and other restraints on the use of force. And if it wishes to be involved in any regulation of the fishery that it solemnly undertook no to molest or interfere with in 1779, it must acknowledge the priority of that fishery and justify its concerns. The Supreme Court has stated that this justification must be adequate on historic, scientific, social and economic grounds.

This urgent message is being ignored. The federal government is defying the law, Canadian public opinion, the Supreme Court and the United Nations Human Rights Committee and is using potentially lethal force against our people to perpetuate the status quo.

The Supreme Court has stated time and again the First Nations Peoples have a legal and constitutional priority right to this resource. It has clearly stated that any infringement or restriction on this right must be justified by the Crown. This justification, the Court has said, "must reflect the prior interest of aboriginal rights holders in the fishery." [Gladstone]

The federal government seems to be saying that it has the right to ram our fishing and Rangers' boats, endanger our lives, and threaten public peace, in order to assert its power and authority. The Criminal Code says it is wrong. The Constitution says it is wrong. The international law of human rights says it is wrong. Common decency says it is wrong.

The Assembly of First Nations has worked hard with the leadership and people of Burnt Church First Nation to bring about good conditions for successful mediation. We work with Burnt Church to suggest mediation. We worked with Burnt Church to suggest mediators' names. We worked with Burnt Church to suggest the protocol for mediation. Burnt Church was preparing for a big meeting tonight, hopefully to get mediation underway, to send the Listuguj Rangers home with their thanks, and to resolve things peacefully.

Now suddenly on the eve of mediation, the RCMP and the Department of Fisheries are either trying to derail mediation or they are sadly incompetent.

What is this all about? It is about a few hundred or thousands of lobster traps, maybe 700 or 1200 or 2000. The federal government never tells Canadians that our peoples' few thousand traps represent less than one percent -- in fact a small fraction of one percent -- of the non-native traps. There are many hundreds of thousands of non-native traps in the eastern lobster fishery as a whole. Burnt Church traps at this time represent the equivalent of 3.2 -- yes, three point two -- commercial fishing licenses, for a whole community. Our share of the fishery is trivial.

The federal government should be telling Canadians these facts, and exercising its responsibility to tell Canadians that we are telling the truth. We are telling the truth about the fishery. We are telling the truth about the history. We are telling the truth about the law. As at Oka and at Ipperwash, will lives have to be lost before the federal government tells the truth? Our people are not "illegals". Our people are not engaged in criminal activity. Our people are asserting their rights to a dignified way of life, an income for their families and communities, and respect for their aboriginal, treaty and other human rights.

This is not about conservation. This is about the illegitimate preservation of an unconstitutional, immoral and very harmful status quo. This status quo causes mass poverty and unemployment, ill health and epidemics of suicide among First Nations Peoples right across this land.

The issues arising in Burnt Church are human rights issues of a fundamental nature. Yet the federal government is ignoring this critical human context. Canada is a signatory to the International Human Rights covenants. It is obliged to respect the rights of First Nations Peoples that arise from these instruments.

I call on the federal government, and all sides in this situation, to exercise patience and restraint, and to support the mediation process and refrain from any more provocation. What forces decided to conduct a provocative raid, arrest, and confiscation on the eve of mediation?

The mediator must be given time to start work and seek peaceful solutions. The federal arrests of our people, our peoples' law enforcement officers, and even independent observers, are inflammatory and must stop. I call on the Prime Minister to get involved in controlling his Ministers and their officials. If there are further uses of state violence against First Nations Peoples in this context and in this country, we will all regret the outcome.

I believe that Canadians will not tolerate the use of force in contexts such as this. Our people must be commended because they have been patient, incredibly restrained and very reasonable for decades. The federal government must match this restraint with equal restraint.

 

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