August 31, 2000

BURNT CHURCH FIRST NATION

620 BayView Drive, Burnt Church, NB E9G 2A8
Telephone (506) 776 – 1200 Fax (506) 776 - 1215

The Chief and Council of Burnt Church are asking for the resignation of Minister Dhaliwal following his refusal to meet with them and other key community members.

The Minister has shown his true colours today. He used the excuse that we were still exercising our treaty right to fish to back away from meeting with us. It’s a total abdication of his ministerial responsibility and shows a total lack of accountability to all of his constituents. His constitutional duty as declared in Sparrow in 1990 is to act as a fiduciary and not in an adversarial way in dealing with Native rights, always with a view to a just settlement of the grievances of Aboriginal peoples. He is unfit to act as a Minister of the Crown and, as such, must resign immediately.

Citizens of the Burnt Church First Nation, as all other Mi’kmaq citizens, have never ceded their rights. They have Aboriginal Rights and Title and Treaty Rights (the Treaties of Peace and Friendship) to their lands and waters that have never been extinguished. These are broad economic and resource rights that demand a remedy for 200 years of encroachment and exclusion, as well as equitable access today.

Even under Marshall, the Minister does not have the authority to regulate as he claims. Regulation is only constitutionally valid if it is justified. The process and economic result of regulation must give effect to Aboriginal priority and regulations cannot just give broad and undefined discretion to the Minister. In fact, DFO has done nothing to implement Marshall and has made no relevant changes to its policy and regulations since 1993. The Minister is illegally trying to enforce the regulations that Marshall found to be inconsistent with our Treaty rights and constitutionally unenforceable.

We appeal to the international community to condemn the actions of the Canadian government in their dealings with this issue and their determination to crush our community into submission.

The Minister has raised the issue of public safety. His latest raid shows wanton and reckless disregard for the lives and safety of our people. The best safety measure available to the Minister is to back off, cool off and refrain from ordering another assault on our people in his pursuit of control at any cost. In light of his inflexible position and denial of our Aboriginal Rights and Title and all of our Treaty Rights to the fishery, the Minister will bear the full responsibility of any consequences that stem from the unconstitutional actions of his officers.

The Chief and Council have adopted the management plan and have mandated their own fisheries officers, referred to as Esgenoopetitj Rangers, who monitor compliance to the regulations as defined in the management plan. Included in their mandate is the protection of Inherent Rights of the Mi’kmaq people at Burnt Church. It is these fishery officers who were assaulted on the waters of Burnt Church.

Finally, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has no lessons to give in conservation after regulating and managing many fisheries to the point of collapse. The catch of Burnt Church is a drop in the ocean. If conservation is a concern, then the Department should focus on the non-Aboriginal commercial fishery. Everybody knows this stock is stable. DFO has produced no evidence to the contrary. Clearly the issue is control, not conservation.

For additional information, contact Karen Somerville at (506) 776-1211.

 

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