Contested Waters

A timely anthology featuring diverse perspectives – Indigenous and non-Indigenous – on the right to fish in the Atlantic, with the goal of creating dialogue and solutions.

Canadians were shocked in the fall of 2020 by news coverage of non-Indigenous crowds threatening Mi'kmaw fish harvesters and burning boats and plant buildings in southwest Nova Scotia. The crisis began when a few Mi'kmaq Nations began to issue their own licenses to community members to conduct small-scale lobster fishing to earn "moderate livelihoods", a treaty right recognized in the Marshall ruling. Non-Indigenous harvesters reacted, some of them violently, against the idea of a new fishery operating outside DFO-regulated licensing, seasons, and fishing zones. With the major issues still unresolved, numerous flashpoints hold potential for future conflict. The question now looms: where do we go from here?

With contributions from Mi'kmaw leaders, academic researchers, legal experts, non-Indigenous industry leaders, and other knowledgeable observers on all sides of the conflict, Contested Waters: The Struggle for Rights and Reconciliation in the Atlantic Fishery provides a respectful and realistic examination of Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives with the goal of encouraging dialogue and a shared search for lasting solutions.