Health Studies

Dear members of the Sipekne’katik First Nation,

The School of Health Policy & Management, Faculty of Health at York University endorses and echoes the statement released by the Indigenous Council at York University on 16 October 2020 that calls on Prime Minister Trudeau to intervene, recognize the modest traditional fishery affirmed by Canada’s Supreme Court, and to stop the violence of commercial fishermen.

As a School, we affirm our support for the Mi’kmaq fishermen of Sipekne’katik First Nation who are facing significant levels of racist violence from Nova Scotia commercial fishermen in their attempts to make a living through lobster fishing, a legal right originating in the Peace and Friendship Treaties signed with the British Crown and affirmed in 1999 by the Supreme Court Marshall decision.

Twenty-one years ago, the landmark Marshall decision affirmed that Mi’kmaq People had a right to achieve a “moderate livelihood” through fishing, to alleviate the impoverishment they have faced since being forced from the fishery by commercial interests for over a century. At that time, after that decision, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans criminalized the attempt of the people of Esgenoopetitj First Nation to sell lobster, forcing them into a narrow licensing system that ignored the rights affirmed in Marshall. For twenty-one years since then, Mi’kmaq First Nations have sought to negotiate for the right to a traditional fishery, practiced on the scale that they can accommodate. Ultimately, they have begun to practice their own modest licensing system, and have provided seven fishers with 40 traps each. The commercial fishermen, who practice large-scale harvesting of lobster, involving hundreds of thousands of traps, have launched a campaign of violence against them, blocking their access to the water, and forcing those out on the water to retreat to shore through forming flotillas of large boats advancing on them and firing flares at them; some have narrowly escaped being set on fire this way. The RCMP have proven ineffective or unwilling to stop the violence, standing by while this horrific violence ensues.

At stake are the abilities of an Indigenous People to alleviate poverty by fishing in the modest and sustainable manner that they have been doing for thousands of years. Given the disproportionately negative health outcomes faced by Indigenous Peoples across Canada, it is vital that sovereignty over food resources, a right affirmed by Canadian colonial law, be upheld to the fullest extent. The reliance on and access to traditional food sources is supported by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and is a fundamental criterion for overcoming health and social inequities stemming from historical and ongoing racist colonial policies and actions.

Wel’alioq, Meegwetch, Niawan, Nya:weh ko;wa, Thank you

School of Health Policy & Management
Faculty of Health
York University

Land Acknowledgement:  We recognize that many Indigenous Nations have longstanding relationships with the territories upon which York University campuses are located that precede the establishment of York University. York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Huron-Wendat. It is now home to many First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities. We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is subject of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.