And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
From: "chris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RCMP ignore attacks, damage done by fishermen
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 16:44:14 -0700
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THE TORONTO STAR
October 5, 1999
`We're not going to take this sitting down. It's going to be personal now
and it's going to get worse before it gets better.'
- Clarence Dedam Jr., brother of one of the Micmacs injured Sunday
Tensions high in fish war
Chrétien calls for calm as house burns, protests spread in N.S.
By Kelly Toughill
Toronto Star Eastern Canada Bureau
BURNT CHURCH, N.B. - Despite a call for calm from Prime Minister Jean
Chrétien, neither side in the bitter war over native fishing rights appeared
ready to give any ground yesterday.
Smoke billowed over a Micmac Indian reserve here for the second night in a
row as a house went up in flames. Police said the blaze was deliberately
set. The torched house, a two-storey summer home owned by non-natives, is
opposite the wharf where two pickup trucks were burned Sunday night. A large
crowd of Micmac people gathered to watch the house burn, chatting and
laughing as firefighters quickly doused the blaze.
RCMP Constable Pierre Pellerin said the fire was a case of arson ``probably
related'' to the fishing dispute. Earlier yesterday members of the
paramilitary Warrior Society set up guard on the wharf one day after
non-native fishermen systematically destroyed every native lobster pot in
Miramichi Bay. Native fishermen had arranged for new traps to be delivered
from a nearby reserve and were chugging out in small boats to meet them.
Chiefs from across Canada are to gather in Halifax tomorrow to show support
for the Micmac, whose right to fish outside the season imposed on non-native
fishermen was recently blessed by the Supreme Court. Natives called for the
laying of charges after three aboriginal men were injured - one of them
seriously - during a night of vandalism and confrontation Sunday.
``What's going to happen if there are no charges, the natives are going to
get p---d off and they're going to try to get even,'' said Kathy Lambert, a
member of the Burnt Church First Nation. ``It could get violent.''
John David Dedam, 30, was still in hospital in nearby Newcastle after
undergoing at least one surgery on his ear. His brother, Clarence Dedam Jr.,
feared more violence if police don't lay charges. ``We're not going to take
this sitting down,'' Dedam said at the Burnt Church wharf. ``It's going to
be personal now and it's going to get worse before it gets better.''
Meanwhile, in Moncton and Yarmouth, non-native fishermen held rallies at the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans, demanding all native lobster pots be
pulled from the sea immediately. In Ottawa, the Prime Minister asked all
parties to relax. ``I don't think violence will solve any problem at all,''
Chrétien said. ``I am appealing for everyone to be calm.''
Federal Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal is to arrive in the region today to
meet with both sides. Yesterday he condemned Sunday's violence and
threatened to impose regulations on the new fishery if native groups can't
immediately broker a truce.
Dhaliwal stressed he has the authority to close the fishery if natives and
non-natives can't reach an interim solution on how to divide up the lobster
catch.
The war started two weeks ago, when the Supreme Court recognized native
rights to fish, hunt and gather some natural resources for profit. The Sept.
17 ruling sparked a rush to the water on some reserves, where some of this
region's poorest people borrowed money to get traps and join the lucrative
lobster fishery.
Chrétien angered natives by raising the possibility of asking the Supreme
Court to suspend its judgment until a solution could be negotiated, but
Dhaliwal said this is not the preferred option. In southwest Nova Scotia,
Dhaliwal's officers were already imposing new regulations on the burgeoning
industry yesterday, said spokesperson David Jennings. DFO officers dragged
the waters of southwest Nova Scotia for lobster pots yesterday, leaving only
1,006 traps that carried a special pink tag. Jennings said officers seized
any lobster pots that weren't already licensed by DFO as allowed for food
and ceremonial purposes by full status natives. He also said the DFO has
shut down a program that allowed non-status natives to fish lobster for food
and ceremonial uses.
``Any pots put in since the (Supreme Court) decision that were not
previously licensed, are not going to be legal in the water,'' he said. The
crackdown came just two days before a deadline set by Yarmouth fishermen to
repeat the violence started in New Brunswick. Yarmouth lobster fisherman
Wayne Spinney said he and others will take their boats to the water tomorrow
to remove any remaining lobster pots. In New Brunswick, RCMP officials said
it will be very difficult to lay charges against any of the hundreds of men
who destroyed an estimated 2,600 native lobster traps on Sunday.
RCMP Corporal Jacques Giroux said they will only be able to lay charges if
they can identify the exact owner of each trap and determine which specific
protesters cut that trap. Men and women wearing combat fatigues erected
three teepees on the wharf and the shore yesterday and delivered large logs
for bonfires that were to burn through the night. Many of the men shielded
their faced with bandanas or netting. An RCMP helicopter buzzed the teepees
several times during the day.
Clifford Larry is war chief of the secretive paramilitary Warrior Society
for this reserve. He said the group gathered here to help ``keep the peace''
and support their people in a time of trouble. He pointed out that members
of his group and others helped escort a non-native man to safety Sunday
night when a crowd of angry Micmacs turned on him.
Meanwhile, many native leaders yesterday seemed outraged by the idea that
Chrétien would try to get around the Supreme Court decision. ``I can't
imagine what he is thinking,'' said Lawrence Paul, who is a moderate chief
from Nova Scotia's Millbrook reserve. ``It's the highest court in the land.
What can we believe, what can we trust if we can't rely on the Supreme
Court? If they set this aside, everyone will always be asking them to do
that in the future,'' he said.
``It's an insult,'' said Albert Martin, a band councillor here.
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine
of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE
http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
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