‘This Is Terrorism On Our Own Land,’ Says Mi’kmaw Man Whose Van Was Torched
A Mi’kmaw man from New Edinburgh is speaking out after his vehicle was torched during a violent encounter at a lobster pound on October 13.
Robert Sack is a lobster boat captain who used his van to haul lobster and fishing gear for other fishermen. On that Tuesday evening, a large group of non-Indigenous fishermen and their supporters showed up at the lobster pound. What happened that night would represent a violent boiling point in the ongoing lobster fisheries dispute in Southwestern Nova Scotia.
“There was a bunch of fishermen parked all along the road. They were calling us names and trying to provoke us,” recalled Sack. “They were all around us. There was only a handful of us at the time and close to 200 of them.”
Sack says he was standing 40 feet away from his work van when someone called out that a vehicle was on fire.
“Next thing you know, buddy said, ‘someone’s van is on fire,’” said Sack. “It went up (in flames) really fast.”
On the same day, a similar incident took play at a lobster pound in Middle West Pubnico. The crowd of 200 people allegedly wouldn’t allow employees of the pound to leave, effectively barricading them inside. Property damage was reported, including another vehicle fire.
The two violent incidents were a part of ongoing, escalating, tensions in the Nova Scotia lobster fishery. Earlier this fall, the Sipekne’katik First Nation Band issued moderate livelihood lobster licenses to fishermen.
The licenses were issued outside of the DFO regulated lobster season, which caused protest and anger from commercial fishermen in southwestern Nova Scotia.
Many commercial fishermen and their supporters say everyone should be governed by the same DFO regulations. They also claim fishing lobster out of season could cause the lobster stocks to decline. But the Supreme Court’s 1999 Marshall decision allows First Nations people to fish on their own land to provide a “moderate livelihood.” Many people have also come forward to say the moderate livelihood fishery is too small to harm lobster stocks in Nova Scotia.
Sack’s van was destroyed after the fire and he is going through his insurance company for compensation. On October 18, the Nova Scotia RCMP said in a press release that they have arrested 31-year-old Michael Burton Nickerson of Yarmouth County for the arson.
To add more insult to injury, Sack says some of the aggressors got physical with his wife and 18-year-old daughter, who were also at the lobster pound. His wife’s phone was taken out of her hand and destroyed, and someone swung some punches (but luckily missed) at his daughter.
“It was terrorism; we had people yelling and screaming at us, just instigating and being rude,” said Sack. “My wife had someone slap the phone out of her hand.”
“They never experienced anything like this before. It’s all new to them…For them to get physical with my wife and my daughter, it was really crossing the line.”
Sack also recalls how some people used racial slurs to insult him and the Mi’kmaq fishermen who were at the pound.
“They were calling us lazy Indians…telling us that none of us worked hard. Everything in the book they could come with, they threw at us,” he said.
Sack doesn’t understand why the commercial fishermen are violently targeting him and Mi’kmaq fishermen. He doesn’t buy the explanation that they are trying to protect the lobster stock from overfishing.
“This is terrorism on our own land…I can see (their point of view) if we all had 100 great big commercial boats, and we’re all out there hauling 400 traps. But we have small vessels and we’re hauling 40-50 traps each,” said Sack. “So, their excuse about conservation is totally out the window.”
In an emailed response to Huddle Today, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia RCMP said there were approximately 200 demonstrators who arrived at the New Edinburgh lobster pound on October 13. The spokesperson said they were not disclosing the number of RCMP officers who were on site at the time. At the time of the incident, no arrests were made.