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12/12/2024
Federal fisheries officers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick refused to show up for work Wednesday morning.
Multiple sources told The Chronicle Herald that all or nearly all officers in the area took part in the job action that is in solidarity with two fellow officers handed suspensions for their role in the arrest of two
Indigenous elver fishers last March.
Neither Fisheries and Oceans Canada nor the Union of Health and Environment Workers, which represents fisheries officers, were able to confirm the work stoppage Monday morning.
The two officers were allegedly involved in the arrest of Kevin Hartling of Membertou First Nation and Blaise Sylliboy of Eskasoni First Nation.
The two men travelled from Cape Breton to the South Shore in March to fish elvers, juvenile American eels that are worth thousands of dollars a kilogram.
Canada's elver season was closed. In February, federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier announced there would be no season in 2024 due to the rampant unlicensed harvesting and violence on East Coast rivers that had characterized the 2023 season.
According to an interview with Sylliboy and Hartling by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, the two were arrested for fishing elvers on March 26, had their boots confiscated and were left at a gas station in Shelburne County in the middle of the night.
"I told (the fisheries officer) like, 'You're really going to leave me here with no shoes at the Irving station?'" Sylliboy told APTN in April.
"He said, 'You know the consequences man.... That's your fault,' and I was just like, 'Man, why would you leave somebody like that?'"
The two, who acknowledged they had been fishing elvers in defiance of the closed season, were not charged with any Fisheries Act offenses.
They told APTN they walked for hours during the night with plastic bags and cardboard on their feet before being picked up and driven to Shelburne.
Sylliboy then called his mother and asked for help.
The fisheries officers' account of what occurred has not been released by DFO.
On April 2, shortly after the incident, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Dartmouth to make a housing announcement. He was confronted by First Nations members protesting the treatment of Sylliboy and Hartling. He promised a "full investigation" into the incident.
On July 8, Lebouthillier issued a statement promising an external review of the incident, including "the conduct of the DFO fishery officers involved, as well as DO policies, enforcement practices, and procedures to eradicate the potential for systemic biases or racism."
The "whole-of-government team" would include members from four federal departments, involve First Nations governments and deliver an independent report.
That report hasn't been released publicly.
Shortly after that announcement, dozens of frontline fisheries officers across the Maritimes submitted refusal-to-work forms under Section 128 (6) of the Canada Labour Code, claiming unsafe conditions and a lack of support from senior management. They also said comments by Lebouthillier were making their jobs more dangerous.
One of the refusal-to-work letters obtained by The Chronicle Herald described the pushback faced by fisheries officers as they attempted to enforce the Fisheries Act on unlicensed fishers.
"These have included physical acts of violence against officers," reads the letter.
"Attempted assaults using vehicles and vessels.
Harvesters attempting to disarm fishery officers from their sidearms, utterances of violence and death threats towards officers and their families."
The officers were seeking body cameras to record their interactions, armour capable of stopping high-powered rifle rounds and drug training.
The work stoppage continued for months as a large-scale unlicensed lobster fishery was conducted on St.
Mary's Bay and DFO continually claimed that it was still enforcing the Fisheries Act.
According to Shimen Fayad, president of the Union of Health and Environment Workers, DFO management continued to deny the dangers faced by its officers.
The work stoppage ended in mid-October when a senior investigator with Employment and Social Development Canada found dangers did exist and issued a directive to DFO to take measures to correct the conditions immediately.
Wednesday's job action by fisheries officers comes as the country's most valuable lobster fishery heats up in lobster fishing areas 33 and 34 off Nova Scotia.
United Fisheries Conservation Alliance spokesman Colin Sproul said Wednesday that fishermen support fisheries officers.
➡️”We firmly support the enforcement actions of frontline (Conservation and Protection officers)," said Sproul.
"We know they've had their hands tied behind their backs by the fisheries minister and Prime Minister's Office and they're trying to do the best they can with the limited tools available."
The Chronicle Herald was not able to reach anyone from the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs for comment.
However, at the protest last April, Millbrook Chief Bob Gloade said, "First thing we're looking for is those individuals responsible to be immediately fired from DFO and be accountable for their actions. The next thing we need to do is to continue to emphasize to DFO that our rights supersede the DFO rules and regulations and how they manage the fisheries."