'THERE IS A VOICE OF REASON, BUT IT ISN'T BEING HEARD BY THE PUBLIC
Don Grady is Vice President of the Southwest Nova Fishermen's Rights Association. The association represents about 200 of Nova Scotia's inshore fishermen. Socialist Worker spoke to him several times during the week of October 4 to 8.
We've noted with concern the media coverage of the aboriginal fishing rights issue, and we suspect the coverage isn't being fair to non-native fishers either. Would you agree?
Yes. They're basically fanning the flames of racism, and trumpeting about violence.
Does your organization support aboriginal fishing rights?
Yes. We held a board meeting and unanimously decided to support the interim protocol put out by the Atlantic Policy convention of First Nations Chiefs.
Did you know there's a United Nation's Convention on this issue? Principles for a sustained fishery, signed by 53 states, with article 618 which states there should be, "priority access to aboriginal, artisanal and traditional fishing communities."
It seems that the media are focusing their attention on two locations where tempers are running particularly high.
Yes. It's been most inflammatory in Yarmouth. But the people there have been either manipulated or don't understand completely the issues facing aboriginals.
There was meeting on Friday October 1, at 10am, called by Clearwater, the Nova Scotia Draggermen's Association, the Seafood Producers Association, and the Nova Scotia Fish Processing Association. There were 29 groups represented at the meeting.
It was the usual fast shuffle -- the big businesses wanted to set up an alliance against the natives. It fell apart at square one because most of the 29 associations didn't want anything to do with this alliance. They want to work with the native interests on a compromise to share the resource.
In Yarmouth there's a tradition of peaceful coexistence. Relations are tense right now, and in general there's a tendency for things to be tense because the area's ground fishery was destroyed by the draggers and trawlers, so all those fishermen are now fishing for lobsters.
This has meant it's been easy for the corporate interests and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, to misinterpret the Marshall ruling, accuse natives of threatening the stocks and the income from those stocks and try to drive a wedge between natives and non-native fishers by fanning the flames of fear and hatred.
It's to the credit of many associations in the province that they've refused to go off half-cocked. There is a voice of reason, but it isn't being heard by the public.
Do you think that disorganization of the fishers in Burnt Church and Yarmouth has anything to do with the racist tensions there?
I think that's fair to say. When a population is isolated, in a society that's rapidly changing, the fate of traditional users of resources is marginalized and they're forced into a false independence. The absence of the linkages that being organized provides makes then vulnerable to scapegoating and racism.
They've been exploited by economic interests. It's divide and conquer.
What should the government do?
Since the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is the instigator of the destruction of the ground fisheries, it should reallocate the resource in a fair way so all inshore fishers can have a fair share of the ocean's resources. That portion should be shared in a pro-conservation way with the aboriginal community.
How should they do this? They should start by not getting involved in removing aboriginal fishers from the water, and they should stop propagating myths such as the one around the actual number of native fishers.
There's actually about 20 licensed fishers right now out of 900 licensed in district 34, the area of contention near Yarmouth. The Simon and Sparrow decisions allowed for native fishers to fish for subsistence and ceremonial purposes. That number might go as high as 50. That's still a tiny percentage.
What can non-native, non-fishers do about this issue?
The best thing non-native, non-fishers can do is write letters of support to the Council of Maritime Chiefs for their proposal of a round table devoted to the issue of sharing and sustaining the ocean's resources.
The proposal says there would be 10 participants -- five representing aboriginals and five representing community-based fisher groups. The proposal's been out there but it's mostly been ignored as well.
We should let the people actually affected by the management of the resource decide how to allocate it, without interference by the government or big business.