Burnt Church trap-cutters get conditional discharge

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New Brunswick's chief provincial court judge has handed conditional discharges to the participants in last October's anti-Native lobster fishing protest which took place in the waters off the Burnt Church First Nation's pier.

In a confrontation last Oct. 3 that has been described by some observers as a race-riot, non-Native fishermen who claimed they were alarmed that their livelihood was threatened by Native lobster fishermen, whose treaty right to fish had recently been upheld in the Supreme Court of Canada's Marshall decision, cut lobster traps belonging to the Native fishermen and demonstrated within sight of the Burnt Church First Nation.

Judge Camille Dumas did not agree with Miramichi Crown prosecutor William Morrissy's suggestion that the 21 non-Native people convicted of cutting the traps pay their fines by purchasing new traps to replace those destroyed during the protest. Instead, each received a conditional discharge. In order to avoid a criminal record, those convicted of interfering with the Native fishery must each pay $500 to the province's victims of crime fund and then keep the peace and be of good behavior for one year. If that year's probation is completed without incident, the 21 Miramichi area fishermen will receive an absolute discharge and will not have criminal records.

"It's not what I suggested but it's within the range of sentencing," Morrissy told Windspeaker. "I'd asked the court to order that they purchase lobster traps and deliver them to the reserve so we could try and get some restorative justice, but he didn't agree."

All of the non-Native people faced two charges: destruction of property and the unlawful interruption of a fishery. They plead guilty to only the second charge. The first charge was dropped.

Other charges related to the incident have yet to be dealt with in court. Morrissy said those charges are scheduled to be heard in late April or early May.

Six Burnt Church members have been charged in connection with an alleged break-in at a protester's home. That same home owner faces assault with a weapon charges.

Native leaders in the region see the conditional discharge sentence as a slap on the wrist. In an interview last October, Burnt Church Chief Wilbur Dedam said authorities in the area have shown little sympathy for Native interests in the fishery. National Chief Phil Fontaine and Dedam told this newspaper that less than one per cent of the fishery was affected by the Supreme Court of Canada decision and that all the publicity and anger prompted by Native fishing was an over-reaction that appeared to be motivated by greed and racism.