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Jamie Sarkonak: One law for First Nations, another for everyone else

Nova Scotia court won't hear case against illegal Indigenous lobster fishery

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There are two kinds of lobster trappers in St. Mary’s Bay, Nova Scotia: the non-Indigenous ones who have to abide by federal law, and the Indigenous ones who apparently don’t. The Liberal approach to governing the fishery has bred tension and violence between the two — and a recent Nova Scotia Supreme Court decision shows that we’re far from seeing it resolved.

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The case had been brought by the Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance, a group of commercial fishermen who banded together to ask the court to formally declare whether or not Indigenous lobster trappers were exempt from federal fishing rules in St. Mary’s Bay. On July 3, the court dismissed the action before it could even proceed to trial: the Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance, ruled Justice Ann Smith, didn’t have standing to bring the case.

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