Settler Violence Toward Mi’qmaw and Lessons From the West Bank
Written by: Morgana Adby
"I watched them pour stuff in my gas tank and my van, slash the tires, cut the wires, they pissed all inside of it,” said Jason Marr about the October 13th mobbing of the Mid- West Pubnico lobster housing facility.
On Saturday, October 17th, a Mi'qmaw lobster pound was burned to the ground by commercial fishers. This is the same lobster pound that was mobbed and vandalized on October 13th while people were barricaded inside.
Tension is not the right word to describe the relationship between commercial fishers and the Mi’qmaw fishers. The correct word is unworkable. There is little foundation for friendly relations, as Chief Mike Sack of the Sipekne'katik First Nation has acknowledged. The entire community, Mi’qmaw and settlers alike, are in a precarious situation. .
The property of Mi’maw fishers has been destroyed and set on fire, while the Mi’qmaw fishers themselves are subject to intimidation and violence. The RCMP are now pressing assault charges to the man that attacked Chief Sack on October 14th. The assault happened the day after commercial fishers vandalized two facilities used by the Mi’qmaq. The two situations occurred a few hours apart.
Following the Saturday fire, Chief Sack requested a military presence to keep the peace. Cheif Sack and others at the Sipekne’katik fishery have indicated that the RCMP stood by as commercial fishers did flagrant intimidation and violence.
Stakeholders are at an impasse. It is not escalating, rather has already escalated. For that reason, disputes like this can often be reduced down to ethnic, cultural or religious divides.
This narrative can similarly be observed in the settled lands in the West Bank and Gaza. Each side perceives that the other is acting as a barrier to their economic opportunity. It is easy to assume either side’s perception flows from a sense of group entitlement. However, that assumption omits the role that the state and community at large have in the dispute. Neither does it ask what role history should have in finding solutions. To assume this is a simple horizontal conflict editorializes an air of detachment which is not appropriate or helpful. It does not prompt inquiry regarding differences in power. It implies the impasse is one of mutually assured destruction, and forget that colonial structures are not balanced.
Settler violence, such as the October 19 assault on the Palestinian community in Burin, demonstrates these limitations. The video shows that Israeli soldiers walked by as young citizens threw rocks at the homes of Palestinians for around 20 minutes. Historically, Israeli soldiers have presented a threat to Palestinian communities near settlements. By neglecting to intervene, those Israeli soldiers have failed to rebalance the colonial power structures. Whether those young people wanted to be or not, those Israeli soldiers made them the agents of state oppression.
Although there may be retribution from a group of Palestinians, there is no comparing the threat. If a crime is committed in retribution, it should not and will not be ignored by the colonizing power, much less function as an extension of that power. The same process is present in Nova Scotia. The RCMP does not seem to apply protections equally. When commercial fishers are not held to account for violence, the RCMP implicitly endorses that violence.
Another approach may be more helpful in both contexts framing a lack of violence as a social contract. The social contract broke down, and has also been subject to repeated violation throughout the decades. To reduce harm, the social contract needs to be renegotiated. A dialogue based on mutual trust and co-dependency needs to be built up.
However this way of looking at the issue is also reductive. Decolonization is not instant coffee, it will take time and work. Yet, that time and work cannot be put in if there are no time for stakeholders to breathe between the violence.
A Non-Exhausive List of Recent Attacks On Mi’qmaw Fishers
On October 13, a New Edinburg facility owned by a licensed third party buyer, was raided by a mob of commercial fishers. Chief Sack told Global News that the facility was, “swarmed and vandalized,” by the group of roughly 200 people.
Robert Sack, a Mi’qmaq lobster boat captain, watched nearby as his work van was torched. He also told Huddle Today that his family were subject to the intimidation. He says his wife’s phone was destroyed and one of the commercial fishers attempted to hit his daughter, but missed.
“They never experienced anything like this before. It’s all new to them… For them to get physical with my wife and my daughter, it was really crossing the line.”
Hours later, in Middle West Pubnico, a lobster pound was targeted. A small group was stuck inside the lobster pound. The pound was owned by a friend to the Mi’qmaw fishers. One member of the Mi’qmaw Global News about the experience. Jason Marr had heard that commercial fishers may try to seize his catch. So, he took 5000 pounds of lobster to the West Pubnico facility, where he thought his livelihood would be safe.
While he loaded the crates into the facility, though, he noticed the trucks outside. The RCMP estimates that this group was also roughly 200 people. They vandalized Marr’s van. Marr reported that the mob threatened to, “burn them out” if the handful of people did not leave. The mob smashed in windows.
Marr did not want to leave his catch to be subject to seizure. He stayed and called police, but he says the RCMP left him alone with the commercial fishers for hours. When the RCMP did arrive, Marr says he was told that the way to de-escalate was to leave.
However, this lobster was Marr’s livelihood, how he provided for his family. It is a national shame that the Mi’qmaw fishers need to be willing to die for their catch to maintain their right to a moderate livelihood.
As Marr said to Global News, “That’s when they [the RCMP] came in and told me ‘that there is over 120 of them out here. There’s nothing we can do to protect you. All we can do is get you out of here and leave. We can’t protect you,'”
Marr eventually left the facility. The mob entered the facility and defaced the lobster with chemicals. They destroyed the entire catch.
The West Pubnico facility was targeted again on Saturday, October 17. This time, it was burned down in a “suspicious fire”. A person of interest in the fire investigation had life threatening injuries. It is unclear if that person is out of the hospital yet or not.
Chief Sack told CTV News that when he heard what had happened, “My stomach turned. The last thing we want is for anyone to be hurt,” says Sack. “We pray for strength and courage and for everyone to be safe. Everyone has a family to go home to – we’re not here to fight.”
It is worth noting Chief Sack’s even-tempered demeanor. He says he would like to see talks between commercial and Mi’qmaw fishers. To clarify, this was not an invitation to involve commercial industry in Nation to Nation talks with the federal government.
He said that he gets emails every day from commercial fishers that want to de-escalate and see an end to violence in the community. But as of right now, those voices are not unified or organized in such a way to create change.
“The last thing we want is more tensions to rise,” he said, “but it is hard to do from their side when there is nobody to really push for them. They feel very frustrated that way… At the same time they are not willing to step up in front of their people and say, ‘you know, this doesn’t sound so bad, we respect it,’ so it's hard.”
What Do Mi’qmaw Fishing Rights Look Like?
The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed that the Mi’qmaw have a treaty right to fish for a moderate livlihood in the region outside of the federally mandated season. This right references the Peace and Friendly Relations Treaty of 1752, but ultimately comes down to the Marshall decision, when the Supreme Court affirmed it in 1999. However, federal guidelines have not adapted to clarify some loose ends, to the disapproval of many stakeholders.
For example, commercial fishers are able to point to the Supreme Court note on conservation. That the federal government reserves the right to regulate Mi'qmaq fishing as it relates to conservation.
This is accurate. However, that does not mean that the federal government intends to apply commercial fishing seasons to the Mi'qmaq. It is more that the federal government retains the right to regulate Mi’qmaw fishing as it relates to conservation, generally. The Mi'qmaq want to manage their own lobster fishing economy. So, the federal government is participating in ongoing talks with the Nation.
If there are concerns about conservation, the federal government can regulate Mi’qmaw fishing. But why would they? Adding more restrictions would add insult to injury for Nation to Nation talks. To understand the depth of that insult, recall Canada’s history. Specifically, the history of pushing Indigenous people out of their spaces for the benefit of industries.
Some have appealed to Mi’qmaw knowledge as evidence that the Nation can regulate its own fishing. Although this may be true, it is not necessary to have a nuanced understanding of the Mi’qmaw to understand the Nation’s rights and responsibilities.
The idea that the Mi’qmaw fishers will not create responsible practices is intuitively non-compelling. If responsible practices are not put in place, that would only hurt the Mi'kmaw fishers credibility. As community members, we need to let go of assumptions that Indigenous Nations are unable to make good choices. With Indigenous Nation’s empowerment, our communities grow stronger, not weaker.
There is ambiguity about the Marshall decision- yet there is little ambiguity about the Mi’qmaw’s right to fish lobsters at the small scale seen presently.
Chief Sack has said that conversations with the ministry of fisheries and federal government have been positive. However, he made the distinction that no negotiations are happening in regard to treaty rights.
What About Lobster Conservation?
There is not evidence that the Sipekne’katik fishery is a risk to sustainable lobster fishing. Haikai Magazine interviewed several experts including Megan Bailey, a fishery's scientist from Dalhousie University. Bailey explained her thoughts on the conservation impacts.
“There’s nothing inherently sustainable or unsustainable about that particular fishery. It’s the cumulative impact of all of the fisheries. If there was no commercial lobster fishery, would [the Sipekne’katik] fishery be sustainable? What is completely missing is the fact that you can’t take the system and say, Well, the system is sustainable, so now we add one more fishery, therefore it is unsustainable. … The additional mortality impact of the current scale of the livelihood fishery—I don't think this is a conservation concern.”
There is one fishery that uses 500 traps, a drop in the bucket compared to commercial fisher licences. Conservation may be a concern if more bands establish them, but there is currently no evidence that the current practice of Mi’qmaw off-season fishing is unsustainable.
In any case, the attacks on the Mi’qmaw are a very unintuitive conservation effort. Mi’qmaw catches are frequent targets. During the last Saturday, the fishers had to abandon all their lobsters on police request. That catch was then destroyed by chemicals and fire. Flagrant waste is usually not associated with sustainability.
As for looking forward, on CBC Power and Politics Chief Sack said that the Mi’qmaw fishers have proposed a joint study with the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to inform conservation policies. Whether this will yield meaningful results is yet to be determined.
What Does Terror Look Like?
Robert Sack, whose van was set ablaze during the New Edinberg mobbing, described his position to Hubble Today like this:
“This is terrorism on our own land… I can see (their point of view) if we all had 100 great big commercial boats, and we’re all out there hauling 400 traps. But we have small vessels, and we’re hauling 40-50 traps each, so, their excuse about conservation is totally out the window.”
Columnists have also used this language. Terror has a very specific meaning in the public discourse. It is a call to action in the North American context. Even though the saying comes from down south, everyone above the 49th parallel knows, “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
That may be why many are so hesitant to use that language. It can be difficult to look at our neighbours and see a terrorist in them. It might be helpful to consider the use of this language in a context that is detached from essentializing a person as a terrorist. Try to look at terror as a wide range of violent activities that may function as terrorism.
Here are some attributes of terrorism that can be applied to the treatment of Mi’qmaw fishers. Independently, these attributes are not compelling, but together these attributes are cause for deep concern.
Action taken to intimidate the public (or a specific community) to achieve a political or ideological goal.
Stochastic violence (not necessary condition but certainly a common practice, even used by organized terror groups).
The victims of the action are fungible, meaning that a set of people are mutually interchangeable as targets.
Violence is done against non-combatants.
Targeting of economic assets and symbols of cultural significance, to make the public feel less safe.
Regardless of if this fits the technical criteria of terrorism under the criminal code, the similarities are striking. The impacts on the community are similar, people are scared. Surely the Mi’qmaw fishers know they could be the next target, but the larger community has also been traumatized. This violence has fulfilled the purpose of terrorism, whether the word technically applies or not.
What Do Palestinian Rights Look Like In Relation to Settler Violence? What Can We Learn From the Contrast?
The stoning of Palestinian homes in Burin is an example of this process at work. It also closely mirrors the relationship between commercial fishers and the Mi’qmaw.
That said, non-analogous examples are also useful, especially in reference to displacement and economic domination.
Displacement and economic domination are key. Often forgotten in favour of striking images of physical violence, control over food and water is a key way of keeping a population down. The International Court of Justice recognizes the essential role that olive trees have in the denial of Palestinian rights.
An example of this process at work, the October 16 clash between Palestinian olive farmers and Israeli Forces. Here, the state issued an order restricting Palestinians from accessing their olive trees during the harvest. This order also happens to displace more Palestinian land owners in the affected area.
In enforcing this order, violence ensued. When farmers tried to assess the lands in protest, soldiers used tear gas and plastic bullets. Three people were injured.
From the perspective of the enforcers, they are simply following the rules. But for Palestinians, they are being pushed out of existence through the denial of their livelihoods, with force if they do not accept the conditions.
The same structure is seen in Nova Scotia. On one hand, the commercial fishers say that they want the lobster season to apply equally to the Mi’kmaq. At face value they are just following the rules as they understand them.
In Canada’s situation, the barriers to change are multiplied by the vigilante nature of commercial fishers' violence. Even with condemnation from Canada’s relevant leaders, the violence continues. There is no institution that can hold commercial fishers to account, unless the RCMP and Forces step up.
Here, a pattern in settler violence is clear. A zero-sum game approach disrupts the lives of an Indigenous people. The distribution becomes normal over time. Once it is entrenched, enforcers object to inconvenient recognition of the disrupted rights. In Nova Scotia, many have questioned if the commercial fisher’s conservation motives. Some have alleged that the commercial fishers do not want the Mi'qmaw fishers competition. That is possible, but does not explain why racialized attacks have been so prevalent amid the violence. Is it a response to new competition, or this specific competition?
Lessons can be learned from the contrast between settler violence across the world. In the Israeli-Palestine region, international stakeholders matter more. International law is the metric most people use, rather than the complex web of treaties and unresolved title within Canada.
It begs an aside question, how would international stakeholders react if they had skin in this game? Indigenous land defenders have been appearing before the UN and international bodies, resulting in calls for change. Yet, international involvement in decolonization within Canada is limited to occasional solidarity.
This could be a benefit, to building a foundation based on trust. Canada is able to step in as an authority without dealing with other state actors to complicate things further. If Canada can show the Mi’qmaw fishers that they will be protected, then the lobster fishing community in Nova Scotia can heal.
Canada needs to step up and make it clear to commercial fishers that the state does not tolerate settler violence. Standing by, as our First People are assaulted, degraded, and denied their basic ability to live and work is not acceptable. It never should have gotten this violent. It never should have been normal to deny Mi’qmaw fishers their right under the Peace and Friendly Relations Treaty. Now, Canada needs to double its efforts to make things right.
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