CPTnet
May 6, 2000
Neguac, New Brunswick: Christian Peacemakers arrested defending Mi'kmaq
fishing rights

 About 12:30 pm today two members of the Christian Peacemaker Team, William
Payne (36) and Robert Holmes (63), boarded a DFO (Department of Fisheries
and Oceans) boat as it was being taken out of the water on a trailer. They
were attempting to reclaim 10 lobster traps which had been confiscated from
a Mi'kmaq fisher's boat an hour earlier near the Burnt Church Wharf.

The traps had official Mi'kmaq tags issued by the Mi'kmaq Fish and Wildlife
Commission and distributed according to the Management Plan of the Esgeno
petitj (Burnt Church) Aboriginal Community. The Esgeno petitj First Nation
has steadfastly refused to sign an agreement with the DFO, preferring to
exercise their Treaty Rights to regulate their own fishery.

"It is time that Christians of European heritage in Canada demand that their
government respects the treaties that have been signed with the First
Nations," says Payne.

A four person Christian Peacemaker Team has been staying at Esgeno petitj
since the beginning of April with the purpose of reducing violence and in
this case interfering with the structural violence of the Government of
Canada as it seeks to ignore and negate the Treaty and Aboriginal Rights of
the Mi'kmaq First Nation. Payne and Holmes were released by the RCMP after
the boat and trailer with the 10 traps were driven away by the DFO officers.
They may be charged with obstructing a Peace Officer.