The key points you should know about the Mi’kmaq lobster dispute brewing in Nova Scotia

Who is involved and what’s at stake? Here are key points you need to know about the Mi’kmaq lobster dispute brewing in Nova Scotia. Read more:

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72 comments

    1. @Ed Meilleur No Ed. The treaties last until those that care about them no longer have the power to enforce them.

    2. @Wayne McMorran Canada would dissolve first…treaty is elder by hundreds of years…canada cannot vote away the USA…like it can not vote away the First nations now…

  1. The Gov’t could avoid all of this by outlining what a “moderate livelihood” equates too in regards to total volume of catch.

    1. Probably should be less than the millions of dollars of lobster the indigenous were selling to foreigners before the season when they got caught 2-3 years ago! One cannot claim indigenous heritage rights which were meant to be non-commercial based on when they were signed, and at the same time use modern non-indigenous methods!

    2. @A CB The 5700 licensed fisherman with 390,000 pots don’t keep breeders, unlike the 11 licensed indigenous fishers with 550 pots. An adult female can lay 100,000+ eggs. You do the math.

    3. @Kenth Hamner _One cannot claim indigenous heritage rights which were meant to be non-commercial based on when they were signed, and at the same time use modern non-indigenous methods!_
      Yes, one can.

  2. Why do my rights change four times a year and someone is the same for two hundred years? … hm? maybe I’m a second-class citizen?

    1. @marty meathead Soon we will rip up these contracts and make Canada the way it should have been. You have no way to hold claims to anything anymore as we can just steam roll the whole bunch!

    2. @de14jabs truth is truth…that has no censor…..I can not be stopped either…i got access and the facts…..that wins alone…

  3. I’ts not only “out of season” fishing; it’s the taking of undersize and breeders, no transparency, and no ability to follow up on who is buying the catch, so the buyers can play off the commercial guys and kill the price. We had the same thing going on in Boundary Bay with the Dungeness crab fishery, with different partners. Taking undersize crab would destroy th ebiggest bay outside of Alaska, all renewable, IF managed for all.

    1. @A CB The 5700 licensed fisherman with 390,000 pots don’t keep breeders, unlike the 11 licensed indigenous fishers with 500. An adult female can lay 100,000+ eggs. You do the math.

    2. @Allan That’s what you say, I think your lying. I think you’re a lied-out lyin liar.
      Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor!

    3. @Derek Stairs I’ll trust the opinions of the over 5000 fisherman who’s livelihood depends on this fishery. Not the likes of an internet troll like you.
      Why do you think the indigenous fisherman don’t want to wait 3 more weeks to lay their traps? They are intentionally targeting the breeding ground, as they know the population will be condensed during that time.

    4. @A CB first they said some experts agree so that means some don’t
      Like usual they don’t site their sources
      Hunting and fishing out of season does hurt populations especially when it’s done for commercial gain that’s why we have conservation laws in the first place
      And lastly if First Nations want to fish and hunt out of season for their family’s all the power to them I have no issue with that if you want to do it for commercial gain then follow the rules

    1. @bushy240 the science says that the piddly 11 licenses and the amount they are catching wont hurt anything.

  4. Maybe if everyone played by the same rules.. I highly doubt that the treaty signed in the 1700s was meant to cover commercial fishing..

    1. The “lobster wars” were a counterintelligence campaign, just like the exploding mailboxes in Montreal attributed to FLQ in 1970, and in between there have been lots, and lots of minor pieces of “event choreography” to influence public opinion, it’s just that the Trudeau governments, past and present, are really amateurish at pulling them off, this one so bad the RCMP wouldn’t touch it..

    2. French has different law
      muslins have different religion attire
      Chinese do not celebrate Christmas like judeans

      we are multi racial society…you can not go into any church unless you are welcome.. they have safety or sanctuary

  5. How about you you treat every citizen equally, instead of giving the first nations the “citizen plus” subscription treatment, they scream and rant about equality but all they want is special rights and privilege’s.

    1. Yeah like fishermen getting special rights to be paid to do nothing 6 months of the year. Let’s give everyone in Canada the same deal.

    2. French has different law
      muslins have different religion attire
      Chinese do not celebrate Christmas like judeans

      we are multi racial society…you can not go into any church unless you are welcome.. they have safety or sanctuary

      unless we start calling each other comrade.. regardless of skill.. or education ..or experience or age…
      the doctors and judges will love that comrade…
      equal right to all.. even the cops have no power to arrest unless coming from central commissariat

    3. This isn’t special rights, it part of a agreement that was signed many years ago. I guess you wouldn’t know that since they don’t teach you about this in your history books.

  6. Question What is their annual salary? Why out of season? Is this another Caledonia? which is still not justly resolved did Trudeau know about before hand why no information

  7. Moderate livelihood doesn’t translate into raping the planet. Fishing seasons are set as to minimize human impact on fish stocks and their breeding seasons. They should have to follow the same rules as everyone else in terms of environmental protection.

    1. @marty meathead: not true MAYAN’S are not First Nations and north American Indians are not genetically linked to Mayans, go back to school

    2. @Cliff Layne indian
      ..that is also a first nations invention..
      you are welcome… India

      we will put it into an ‘act’ and reframe it back into the bed of law

    1. it would actually be fair to split the 65,000 traps up…that is too much for commercial fishery men..
      half of that goes to the first nations…then they can abide by the laws with an equal stake at last

      30,000 apiece would mean that moderate lively hood the other fishermen have

    2. Ok, but they get to kidnap your children for generations and put them in residential schools staffed by sociopaths and pedophiles, deal?

  8. What was right 100 or more years ago may not be right today. There is a season folks can catch lobsters etc. for a reason. That reason is to protect the species and ensure a resource is not destroyed.

  9. Basically they are abusing their treaty rights to ridiculous degree. There is no defending what is going on here.

    1. So you say Canada should have the right to break treaties signed before there was a Canada?
      So will we apply that equally?
      I buy a car and stop paying after I leave the car lot and say, ‘I don’t like the terms of the agreement I signed so I’m just not gonna pay, OK?’

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