This injured N.L. fisherman paid a heavy price protesting for free enterprise

It takes some effort and plenty of discomfort and anxiousness for Richard Martin to lift himself off his couch, settle in behind his walker, and make his way around his house.

He pushes the walker ahead of him, braces himself with his two arms, and uses his momentum to swing his right foot forward. His injured left leg barely touches the floor as it catches up. He repeats this motion about a dozen more times before he gets to the patio door in his kitchen.

He brushes the curtain back with his right hand to get a better look at his backyard.

"I'd like to be outside today cleaning up some mess after the spring thaw," Martin says, he voice reflecting his downcast mood after a month being cooped up in his house.

These are tough times — both physically and emotionally — for the 52-year-old fisherman from the tiny, remote Baie Verte Peninsula community of Shoe Cove, which is home to roughly 130 people and 17 inshore fishing enterprises.

Instead of working shoulder-to-shoulder with his lifelong friend and fishing partner, Merricks Foster, preparing their enterprise for another season on the water, Martin spends most of his days reading, scrolling social media, accepting phone calls and visits from family and friends, and replaying in his mind a violent morning in St. John's that turned his life upside down.

"There have been a few rough days, and there might be a few more yet," he says.

It was just after 8 a.m. on Wednesday, March 20, and Martin was one of hundreds of frustrated seafood harvesters — many of whom had travelled long distances — who were blockading Confederation Building in St. John's, preventing public service workers and politicians from accessing the sprawling complex.

With Port de Grave fisherman John Efford Jr. leading the charge, they were there fighting for what they were calling "free enterprise," or the right to have more say over how they catch, land and sell their seafood. They wanted political leaders to act on their concerns in order to loosen the tight grip they asserted seafood processing companies hold over the industry.

On this morning, they were locked in a tense standoff with dozens of officers from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

Protesters had separated into groups and blocked the various entrances to Confederation Building, but an access point at the rear of the building that was commonly used by politicians and government workers was quickly becoming the flash point.

The tension escalated as two RNC officers on horseback entered into the crowd, and then other officers on foot attempted to open a corridor in order to escort a group of government workers into the building. This touched off an angry clash as protesters and police tussled.

"They're taking our rights away from us," exclaimed one protestor, as he scuffled with three officers.

At one point in the pandemonium, police mistook a red-faced worker for a protestor, but he was quickly released after yelling "I'm a public servant, sir," and then he stumbled his way into the building.