28 charged over N.B. crab fishery riots in 2003

RCMP have charged 28 people three years aftera nine-hour rampage by crab fishermen in Shippagan, N.B., who set fire to boats, buildings and more than 100 traps.

The police saidTuesday that 67 charges had been laid, including assaulting a police officer, arson, and break and enter.

The people who have been charged are scheduled to appear in court on Oct.5 and 6.

The riot on May 4, 2003, generated headlines across the country.

The men and women involved were protesting the federal government's decision to reduce the region's quotas in the snow crab fishery, which is the most lucrative catch on the East Coast.

The protesters were furious that Ottawa hadordered traditional crabbers to share 15 per cent of the remainder of the catch with inshore lobster fishermen. The federal decision made permanent a 1999 decision that granted lobster fishermen a temporary share of the catch as a way to reduce pressure on the lobster stock.

When the riot broke out in Shippagan, police were unprepared and did not have enough officers on the ground to stop the destruction.

Approximately 10 officers watched as the crowd set fire to four vessels owned by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Big Cove First Nation, burned a crab-processing plant and warehouse to the ground, and attempted to set fire to the local DFO office.

The protesters also destroyed more than 100 traps.

Police interviewed 1,200 people

No arrests were made at the scene.

Police asked the public to come forward with any information that could help their investigation, promising anonymity to witnesses.

During the past three years, more than 100 RCMP officers have interviewed about 1,200 people in connection with the riot, according toInsp. Michelle Martin

"This was one of the longest, hardest and most complicated investigations that the RCMP has ever undertaken in New Brunswick," said Martin, who is in charge of the force's major crimes unit in the province.

"We wanted to make sure that we were doing a good job so that we would bring justice to this particular event."