[discuss-dan] FWD: [frostysamerindian] Digest Number 489

[Doc Rosen <drdrdoc@dr.com>]

Native fishers face $500 mil' dilemma over treaty
rights
Canadian gov't hopes to lure natives away from stance
on 250-year-old treaties

By Canadian Press


Feb. 12 - WorldCatch News Network - The federal
government announced plans Friday to launch sweeping
negotiations on Atlantic native fisheries and other
treaty issues, including economic development, among
Mi'kmaq and Maliseets.

But neither Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal nor Indian
Affairs Minister Robert Nault would divulge their
budgets Friday as they introduced their chief
negotiators going into talks with - they hope - 34
bands. Sources have said up to $500 million has been
approved for native fisheries and improvements on
reserves.

Dhaliwal said he doesn't want to undermine the
government's negotiating position by quoting figures.

"I can assure you that sufficient resources have been
provided for us to deal with our mandate," he said.

The ministers introduced two negotiators: lawyer Thomas
Molloy to lead talks on aboriginal and treaty rights
and James MacKenzie to negotiate native fisheries
agreements of one to three years.

The talks are part of the government's strategy to
address the Supreme Court of Canada's 1999 Marshall
decision, confirming native rights to earn moderate
livings from hunting, fishing and gathering in Atlantic
Canada and Quebec.

The high court issued a subsequent clarification saying
Fisheries has the right to regulate the resource.
Ottawa hopes to settle the issue before the spring
lobster seasons open on the East Coast.

Ottawa started last year to improve native access to
the fishery through interim agreements that expire in
March. The deals, which provided training, equipment
and licences to native bands, cost the government $160
million.

Bands at Burnt Church, N.B., and Indian Brook, N.S.,
refused to sign agreements last year, claiming they
undermined inherent aboriginal treaty rights to the
fishery.

In Burnt Church, the scene of violent clashes between
federal authorities and defiant native fishermen, band
councillor Brian Bartibogue said he doubts his band
will participate in the process.

Bartibogue said he would prefer to continue fishing
under band regulations rather than submitting to a
process that would "extinguish our treaty rights."

"We in our First Nation here designed our own
management plan and we feel we have the authority to
initiate our own fisheries act," he said.

"If we do opt in to the MacKenzie process we have to
tell 90 percent of fishermen that you can't go
fishing."

Said Reg Maloney, chief of the Indian Brook band: "I'm
really disappointed in it because it doesn't address
the treaty rights to the fishery. They don't justify
the seizing of our equipment."

He said he doesn't know if he'll participate in the
negotiations.

"I'll have to discuss that with our chiefs and our
community."

Nault said the government is acting in good faith,
recognizing First Nations in Atlantic Canada have a
treaty right to hunt and fish.

He acknowledged Burnt Church has so far rejected its
overtures, claiming the right to define its own treaty
rights.

"I don't think that's appropriate nor acceptable to the
government of Canada," he said. "If people choose to
implement their treaty rights unilaterally, you will
have the kinds of issues that confronted has last
year."

Denny Morrow, spokesman for the non-native Atlantic
Fishing Industry Alliance, said the multi-year deals
could lead to as much as 20 percent of the East Coast
fishery being transferred to natives.

The alliance believes that about $430 million has been
set aside by Ottawa to buy licences and subsidize
natives through purchases of boats and facilities.

Morrow contends the Supreme Court decision never
envisioned "such a large transfer of access."

He said last year's agreements have already caused
lobster licences to soar in price and is causing
uncertainty in the fishing industry.

Somos la misma familia,
Doc
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