John Cummins, M.P. Delta-South Richmond

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2001

Treaties No Longer Basis for Action on Marshall

OTTAWA-"The 1760-61 Mi'kmaq treaties stand for nothing according to the Minister of Fisheries. The treaties are not the basis for his purchase of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of licences, boats and gear and their transfer to native bands," said John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond).

The Minister yesterday provided the Fisheries Committee with the ten 1760-61 Peace and Friendship Treaties, the so-called Marshall Treaties. There was no specific treaty amongst the group for Prince Edward Island, southern Nova Scotia between Cape Sable and Annapolis Royal, and the Gaspe.

The Minister rejected the need to base a community's treaty right to fish on one of the ten Marshall Treaties. When asked about the absence of a specific Marshall treaty signed by Prince Edward Island natives, the Minister and his officials acknowledged that none existed. They alleged that today's Island natives had moved there from elsewhere in the Maritimes when in 1760 they would have been part of a community that signed one of the Marshall Treaties. Claiming confidentiality, officials refused to provide any historical document upon which they based their assertion.

When asked how much of this year's budget was to be allocated to natives covered by the first Marshall Treaty, the St. John River Treaty, they advised that a specific treaty was not the basis for the purchase of licences, boats and gear for New Brunswick bands. Officials indicated the department does not attempt to connect bands receiving treaty benefits to a specific treaty.

The Supreme Court's instructions in Marshall on treaty-based fishing rights are treaty, activity and area specific: "The treaties were local and the reciprocal benefits were local ... the exercise of the treaty rights will be limited to the area traditionally used by the local community."

· The treaty right extends only to the community which signed a particular treaty.
· The activity was intended by the signers to be covered by the treaty and was engaged in by the community at the time the treaty was signed.
· The area to be fished is limited to the traditional fishing area of the community.

"Until yesterday in Fisheries Committee, the Minister had claimed that the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on the transfer of licences and gear to native bands were required by the fishery obligations arising from the Marshall Treaties."

"Fishermen, who are being asked to give up their livelihood, are being shunted aside merely at the whim of the Minister of Fisheries," said Cummins.

Contact: John Cummins, M.P.
(613) 992-2957 or cell (604) 970-0937