Lobster season opens amid uneasy calm

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick – The lobster season on New Brunswick’s Miramichi Bay opens this week on much calmer waters than last fall.

Hundreds of commercial fishermen in northeastern New Bruns-wick started setting traps Monday for a spring season that promises to be considerably more peaceful than last fall, when boats were rammed, demonstrations were commonplace and shots were fired.

Little has changed in the standoff between native fishermen at Burnt Church, New Brunswick, and the Canadian Fisheries Department, but a Micmac spokesman said Monday there shouldn’t be too many problems this spring.

James Ward, a tribal rights activist and Micmac warrior at Burnt Church, forecast that the tribal fall fishery on Miramichi Bay, not the commercial spring harvest, will be the flash point for tensions over access to the rich lobster fishery.

“A few of our native fishermen will go out this spring and exercise their rights,” Ward said. “It’s for sustainment, not for commercial purposes. They have to supplement welfare one way or another.

“I’m assuming there will be small skirmishes based on that, but I don’t see real big confrontations. Those will come in August and September.”

That has been the pattern since September 1999, when the Supreme Court of Canada issued its landmark decision in the Donald Marshall case and changed the landscape of the Maritime fishing industry.

The people of Burnt Church and a handful of other Maritime bands have used the Marshall decision to buttress their claim to an inherent, tribal right to hunt, fish and cut lumber on government land as a means of earning a livelihood.

The majority of East Coast bands are prepared to negotiate agreements with Ottawa giving them increased access to the fishery, as well as boats, training and money for economic development.

But Burnt Church, which sits on the coast of Miramichi Bay, is a holdout once again this year and so far has refused to even consider a management deal with Ottawa.

The band insists it has the right to manage its own fishery. It does not recognize the authority of the federal Fisheries Department to impose seasons and regulations.

“The situation is unsettled,” said Burnt Church band manager Karen Somerville.

“Ottawa is still pushing agreements for the First Nation communities to sign and we’re still maintaining our position to manage our own resources. There hasn’t been any clear communication between us and the government.”

Without a resolution to the impasse, another period of turbulence looms on Miramichi Bay.

Last fall, there were numerous confrontations between federal fisheries officers and defiant Micmac fishermen, who violated Ottawa’s management plan for the region and set thousands of traps out of season from August until October.

Ottawa recognizes only one commercial lobster-fishing season on Miramichi Bay and that runs from early May until late June.

Several people were hurt during the confrontations last year, both tribal members and fisheries officers. Gunshots were fired on a couple of occasions, including one incident where a non-tribal fisherman’s boat was hit. No one was injured in that incident.

Ward said both sides in the dispute are anticipating trouble this fall. “The government hasn’t done anything to change its stance and we’re not going to compromise the rights of our children,” said Ward, one of the most recognizable figures in Burnt Church with his Mohawk haircut and battle fatigues.

“As long as you see this huge divide with no serious action on the part of the government to sit down and recognize our inherent rights, then we’re going to have confrontation like we had last year. This isn’t something our people want. We’re the ones outnumbered and outgunned. But we’re going to stand up for what we believe in.”

Bruce Wildsmith of Halifax, the leading tribal rights lawyer in the region, said the federal government has not moved quickly enough to clarify the situation for bands like Burnt Church and give them a means to negotiate a solution.

The Canadian federal government “should be more respectful of what individual bands wish to do,” Wildsmith said.

“For people who want to fish in accordance with their rights, they have no process that has been put in place to allow them to negotiate and discuss their presence.”

Andre Marc Lanteigne, spokes-man for the federal Fisheries Department, said he hopes Burnt Church will reach a negotiated settlement and avoid problems.

But he said the department is ready if talks fail.

“Let me be clear, we will be ready for anything,” Lanteigne said.

“We’re not going to let failure at talks prevent us from doing what we have to do.”