Mi'kmaw fishermen to assert treaty right for lobster fishing in court case

The stage is now set in Nova Scotia for another round in the court battles over Indigenous fishing rights.

The lawyer for four Mi'kmawfishermen appeared by phone Tuesday in Yarmouth provincial court.

The menadmit they were fishing for lobster aboard the vessel Charlene Helen off Pinkney's Point, Yarmouth County, in September2019.

The area they were fishing in is part of Lobster Fishing Area 34, which was closed to fishing activity at the time.

Two of the men 31-year-oldAshton Joseph Bernard and22-year-old Arden Joseph Bernard are members of the Eskasoni First Nation. The other two men 22-year-old Rayen Gage Francis and 34-year-oldZachery Cuevas Nicholasare members of the Pictou Landing First Nation.

In an agreed statement of facts entered into evidence, the men admittedthey landed 2,560 lobsters that day, which were seized by Fisheriesofficers and returned to the water. The officers also seized 32 lobster traps.

Exercising treaty right

The men saidthey were not authorized to fish for lobster under Atlantic fisheries regulations or the Aboriginal communal fishing licencesregulations. They plan to argue that they were exercising their treaty right to fish.

The case will return to court in April.

A fifth man, Michael Roland Surette, was charged along with the other four fishermen. Surette is not Indigenous and the Crown requested that his charges be severed from the other four cases, which are proceeding together.

The judge granted the Crown's request for severance. Surette is still working on getting a lawyer to represent him.