STATEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE MARITIME FISHERMEN'S UNION - Sept. 17 / 2000
Many fishing families and communities are in turmoil over events in the Miramichi. We must find a way to make the peace. We are here for ourselves, for our future and for our children.
It is one year today that the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of Donald Marshall. When we first heard of the decision, many of us knew it would mean a long period of adjustment in the fishery as the Mi'kmaq peoples take their rightful place in the proud fishery of the East Coast. Last fall Mi'kmaq people went into celebration and took to the waters. This was understandable for the first few days but soon it became an open fishery with thousands of traps going into the water. The Federal Government dithered and dithered. Fishermen were left in the dark about the future of their hard won fishery. Everyone knows what happened October 3.
Our sole objective since then as the MFU has been to have the institutions of Canada work to accommodate Marshall but not on the backs of fishermen. Rectifying the years of suffering and isolation of our first nation's peoples is a national obligation that must be shouldered by all citizens. We cannot have the rest of society, sitting in their comfortable pews, telling fishermen to give up their livelihoods while they do nothing but preach and emote. This is why we are here today to send the message that you cannot ask hard working fishing families to shoulder the Country's national guilt nor can you ask the tiny Native Band at Burnt Church to carry out the struggle on behalf of all Canada's Aboriginal people. We have a National Government and we expect them to make a deep and lasting modern treaty with our first peoples.
Burnt Church Native people and ourselves, we have to walk away from this local deadlock on the water. We have to walk away from this because we are all being asked the impossible. We are being asked to live out the fantasies of people who will never live in Burnt Church or Neguac or Baie Ste Anne.
The fishermen have their union and the people of Esgenoôpetitj (Burnt Church) have their Grand Council of Chiefs and the Assembly of First Nations. This is where progress can be made towards a lasting and sustainable fishing plan that brings Mi'kmaq people as full partners in the fishery. We can already see the outlines of this on Malpeque Bay, in St. Mary's Bay, and yes, in Richibouctou.
As a fisherman, I know it was fishermen who brought the number of traps down, who pushed for size increases and protection of females. I know it was fishermen who finally got the out of season poaching under control and established a spring season as the way to renew the fishery year after year. We can show the world a lobster fishery second to none, a fishery that is supporting the whole coast. I believe in my heart that we have found by trial and error and over decades of hardship a conservation harvesting plan that works and management by season is a key principle.
The people of Esgenoôpetitj (Burnt Church) have shown how deeply their beliefs in their ancestral rights go. We cannot deny this and we have to work with this. The spirit of our fishing families also go deep, very deep and Native peoples will have to work with this too.
The MFU has had many quarrels with DFO; we have had our run-ins with the RCMP, we have had the Province bring in fishermen's legislation. We have debated Fisheries Act amendments before the House of Commons Committee, we have driven Ministers out of office. The MFU has faced the Courts and we have worked out countless fishing plans. The MFU has worked through Church organizations in West Africa. We have helped fishing communities in India challenge bad Government decisions.
Our task was never to bring down the institutions but to make the basic institutions of Canada serve the common people of all races and ancestry. The Supreme Court is the ultimate Judicial Authority and the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is the ultimate Management Authority. We recognize that and we can never allow them to let down the citizens. That is the job of our type of organization.
Many of you here are frustrated 'au bout' and you are fearful of the future. You have told us many things. You are furious with your institutions. You will have a chance to tell your stories today. I just want to end with this one message: We want peace and reconciliation with our Native peoples in the Miramichi, in the Maritimes and in the Country. I would be hypocritical to call for peace if it meant more isolation and poverty for Esgenoôpetitj (Burnt Church). They have put themselves on the map. They will be fishermen and they will have a say in the fishery. I say again to you and the Mi'kmaq people let's walk away from this deadlock and make our great fishery work for everyone.
Ron Cormier, President of the Maritime Fishermen's Union
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