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Jamie Sarkonak: Feds\u2019 racial politics have plunged Canadian fisheries into chaos<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Identity-based redistribution programs have been a disaster for fishermen on both coasts<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Jamie Sarkonak<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published Jan 27, 2025 \u2022 Last updated 6 days ago \u2022 5 minute read<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Fishing](\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/nationalpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/NS-Lobster-Season-20191126-TOPIX.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=6JhGmGkiH5a7fNw8LA-KRw\")
Fishing boats, loaded with traps, head from port in West Dover, N.S. on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019 as the lobster season on Nova Scotia’s South Shore begins after a one-day weather delay. Photo by Andrew Vaughan\/The Canadian Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There are Indigenous fishers, and there are non-Indigenous fishers \u2014 and every year, the federal government takes more and more away from one to give to the other, citing reconciliation and an ever-expanding notion of Indigenous rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2025 edition of this game of racial redistribution involved the Liberal government taking away<\/a> half of the American eel quota and distributing it to First Nations in Atlantic Canada. Another 27 per cent was planned to be taken for distribution to employees of those who already have eel licences, but this was cancelled last-minute<\/a> on Thursday, when Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier came to her senses and called it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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It was an instance of drastic favouritism: in the Maritimes, the Indigenous population is between<\/a> 2.2 and 5.5 per cent, depending on the province, while in Newfoundland, it\u2019s 9.3 per cent. The government previously defended its plans for identity-based redistribution as a moral move, with lucrative eel prices providing<\/a> \u201ca unique opportunity to advance reconciliation by reducing the longstanding socioeconomic gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aside from reconciliation-driven quota transfers like the eel quota redistribution of 2025, the feds are often motivated by a desire to honour the treaty right held by the region\u2019s Indigenous groups to earn a \u201cmoderate livelihood<\/a>,\u201d as the Supreme Court of Canada set out in the 1999 case of R. v. Marshall<\/a>. The feds have never been clear or consistent about setting limits on that right, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when Indigenous groups exercise that right \u2014 which often seems to come without limits \u2014 their harvest cuts into the allowable catch for commercial fisheries, with the potential to devastate fishers big and small. Facing quota redistribution, eel fishers Tien and Anh Nguyen believed<\/a> they wouldn\u2019t be able to keep anywhere near as many staff. They weren\u2019t going to be compensated for their loss, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Meanwhile, budding eel farming company NovaEel \u2014 which, if it succeeds, will be the first of its kind in Canada \u2014 now has rocky prospects. The eel suppliers it had lined up to get its farming operation off the ground were poised to have considerable quota taken away, which would mean that NovaEel wouldn\u2019t be able<\/a> to get up and running. The government has signalled that it can kill this kind of business at a moment\u2019s notice, which is toxic to investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plenty more of these identity-based initiatives in fishing have gone though. In 2025, $259.5 million in handouts<\/a> are planned to support commercial Atlantic First Nations fishing businesses. These funds will be used on everything from licences, boats and gear to corporate governance; licences acquired under the deal can be leased back to non-Indigenous fishermen. Note that on the East Coast, the feds have spent<\/a> more than $1 billion buying fishing licenses and equipment for First Nations over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, while the feds obliterate non-Indigenous businesses without compensation, they\u2019ve been pumping millions into the Indigenous side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Indeed, in 2021, commercial crab fishers in one fishing zone of British Columbia had half of their trapping allocation taken by the government<\/a> and redistributed<\/a> to Indigenous people to assist them in earning a \u201cmoderate livelihood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the losing side of the reallocation were Jason Voong, a second-generation crab harvester whose family came here to fish crab after fleeing the Vietnam war, and Jeff and Cameron Edwards, whose family fishing business had been in the area for 32 years. \u201cAs a commercial fisherman, I feel like I don\u2019t exist in the eyes of the government,\u201d Jeff Edwards told<\/a> the Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News. No one, of course, was compensated by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for lobster, the fishery is in absolute chaos due in part to federal cowardice. In southeast Nova Scotia, leaders of the Sipekne\u2019katik First Nation set up<\/a> a large out-of-season fishery in 2020, which they claim is an exercise of their Aboriginal right to earn a moderate livelihood from the land. The feds attempted to put a cap on their catch, but this was rejected by the First Nation, which continued to take lobster from the sea. That alone should raise questions about the legality of their actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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You might be able to guess what happened to the lobster population in that area since. Commercial fishers have reported that lobster stocks are depleted<\/a> due to over-harvesting. Meanwhile, say the RCMP, an organized crime group has been profiting<\/a> from illegally harvested lobster, reaping profits and terrorizing locals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, instead of putting its foot down and finding a resolution, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans largely watched from the sidelines, enforcing violations here and there but refusing<\/a> to approve a tentative agreement between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishers that could have resolved the matter in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, the problem of legally grey Indigenous fisheries spread: a Mi\u2019kmaw group on Prince Edward Island followed their Nova Scotian counterparts and set up<\/a> another \u201cmoderate livelihood\u201d fishery; now, the group\u2019s leader is asking<\/a> for the government to provide them with commercial licences as well. And why not? The feds have proven to be generous so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The civil discord that comes from having parallel, competing, identity-based fisheries hasn\u2019t been good. Prince Edward Island has noticed an uptick in gear tampering<\/a> \u2014 such as cutting traps loose from lines \u2014 while Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have seen everything from vigilante trap removal to violence and sabotage. Buildings have been torched, and men who refuse to buy unlicensed catch have had their homes shot<\/a> at. Non-Indigenous fishermen have removed<\/a> traps from the water, while Indigenous fishermen have set up blockades to defend their wharf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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It\u2019s not good. The Liberals, keen on neutering Canada\u2019s resource sector, have done what they can to neglect their duty to provide a fair and prosperous playing field. On the coasts, this involves pitting subsets of the population against each other in the absence of clear rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019ve turned the fishing industry into a ridiculous game of racial tug-of-war, which is corrosive to good community relations on the coast \u2014 and to the health of the Canadian fishing industry in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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