Sipekne’katik chief ‘optimistic’ about newly appointed fisheries minister, Joyce Murray
Global News
The chief of Sipekne’katik First Nation in Nova Scotia says he's looking forward to a clean slate with the newly appointed fisheries minister.
The chief of Sipekne’katik First Nation in Nova Scotia says he’s looking forward to a clean slate with the newly appointed fisheries minister.
MP Joyce Murray, who represents Vancouver Quadra, was named minister of fisheries and oceans when Justin Trudeau unveiled his new cabinet Tuesday.
Joyce replaces Bernadette Jordan, who lost her re-election bid in the riding of South Shore—St. Margaret’s in the September election. Jordan had come under fire for her handling of the lobster fishery dispute along the south shore between commercial and Indigenous fishermen.
Sipekne’katik Chief Mike Sack told Global News on Wednesday he is encouraged that the new minister is not from the area.
“It should be more of an unbiased opinion, in my mind,” he said.
The Sipekne’katik First Nation argues that a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision affirming its members’ treaty right to fish allows them to harvest lobster year-round to earn a “moderate livelihood.”
But the court has also said the government can regulate that treaty right for conservation and other limited purposes. Federal regulation dictates that the area where the Sipekne’katik First Nation fishery is operating in southwestern Nova Scotia — LFA 34 — is open for lobster fishing from the last Monday in November until the end of May.
In September 2020, the band launched a self-regulated lobster fishery outside the federally regulated season, which led to violence and the burning of a lobster pound that stored Indigenous catch.