In September 2020, Mi’kmaq fishers from Sipekne’katik First Nation launched their own moderate livelihood lobster fishery out of Saulnierville, Nova Scotia.
That right isn’t new. It’s protected under the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1760–61, and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of so-called Canada in 1999 through the R. v. Marshall decision. That ruling recognized that Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqey, and Peskotomuhkati peoples have a constitutionally protected right to fish and trade for a “moderate livelihood.”
But when Mi’kmaq fishers exercised that right, hostility erupted.
Non-Native commercial fishers surrounded their boats, cut and stole traps, rammed vessels, and destroyed property. A lobster pound used by Mi’kmaq fishers in Middle West Pubnico was burned to the ground. Catches were dumped or ruined. Mi’kmaq boats were vandalized and sabotaged at wharves.
And during it all, the RCMP were heavily criticized for standing by as violence unfolded. These weren’t “conflicts over conservation.” They were acts of intimidation and racism, aimed at Indigenous people exercising rights that predate so-called Canada itself.
The Mi’kmaq never asked for permission... they already had the law on their side.
Treaty Rights = Law.
Still, they were treated like outlaws on their own waters. When those traps were cut, it wasn’t just rope that was severed... it was trust. And yet, Mi’kmaq fishers went back out the next morning, because this was never about lobster.
It’s about sovereignty, survival, and the right to live free on Mi’kma’ki waters.
