A Group of Indigenous Fishermen Want to Take the Government of Canada to Court

13.07.2024 - 06:49 / modernfarmer.com

Cody Caplin is frustrated. The Indigenous fisherman catches lobster, salmon and smelt in the waters near his home in the northern part of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. And he says over the last few years, that process has become more and more difficult. 

“They just keep taking away from me and my family,” he says. “This is how we live, this is how I pay to put food on the table and clothes on their backs. This is our way of life.”

The “they” he’s referring to are officers from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, who Caplin alleges keep him under surveillance. He says these officials are often around when he comes back to the wharf from fishing. “If we go drop traps, they’ll park their vehicle, walk on down to our boat, and say ‘you guys can’t put those traps in the water without tags.’ [And I’ll say] ‘well, actually, we can,’” he says.

For Caplin, these repeated interactions come down to one thing: He’s Indigenous, a member of the Eel River Bar First Nation. And his desire and right to fish these waters is hotly contested, a fight that’s been going on for decades. 

That’s why Caplin is part of a group of Mi’kmaq fishermen from across Atlantic Canada looking to launch a class action lawsuit against the Canadian government, claiming that their rights are not being respected. Together, the group alleges that the federal government has not “come close to satisfying its obligations to the Mi’kmaw people.” Those obligations are thorny and encompass both a previous Supreme Court of Canada decision and aspects of Indigenous treaty law. 

In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Indigenous people in the Maliseet, Mi’kmaw and Passamaquoddy bands had the right to fish and hunt to earn a “moderate