The dispute over tribal fishing rights in Passamaquoddy Bay is again heating up, with four Passamaquoddy fishermen from Sipayik facing charges for lobstering in Canadian waters, the Canadian fisheries minister voicing support for Indigenous fishing rights and lobster fishermen from southwest New Brunswick holding a protest in St. Andrews over alleged lack of enforcement of Canadian fishing laws along the boundary with the U.S. and calling for the resignation of the fisheries minister. Similar incidents in which Sipayik fishermen, who maintain a right to fish in their traditional territory, have been charged for violating Canadian fishing laws have occurred during the past decade.
The four Passamaquoddy fishermen — Erik D. Francis and his two sons, Erik S. and Tyler Francis, and Adam Newell — are being charged by Fisheries and Oceans Canada with unlawful fishing in Canadian waters under the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act. The charges stem from two separate incidents that occurred in November 2022 and September 2023. In the September 2023 incident, 12 lobster traps were seized, and the three fishermen, Erik S. and Tyler Francis and Adam Newell, are facing an additional charge of obstruction of a protection officer.
In the November 2022 incident, 36 traps were seized, and Erik D. Francis, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges of unlawful fishing and unlawful entry in Canadian fishing waters, is waiting for his trial to begin in Saint John provincial court on Oct. 22. Francis said he will be raising a constitutional challenge in court, adding, “I don’t believe I’ve committed any crime.”
Francis stated that the 1760 Peace and Friendship Treaty between the Passamaquoddy and the British crown guaranteed the rights of Passamaquoddy to hunt, fish and farm in their traditional territory without interference from the British government. He and the other Passamaquoddy were fishing under the authority of the tribal government, with tribally issued licenses that allow them to fish in traditional Passamaquoddy territory, which includes all of Passamaquoddy Bay, into the Bay of Fundy to Grand Manan and up the coast to Point Lepreau. “I was directed to fish in our traditional territory by the Passamaquoddy tribal government,” Francis said.
The tribal members fish under the Passamaquoddy fisheries management plan, which includes a minimum size limit that is greater than the size limit in the nearby lobster fishing areas in Canada, along with a maximum size limit.
Because of the ongoing disagreement over tribal fishing rights, on Sept. 14, more than 50 fishing boats from through lobster fishing area 36 staged a peaceful protest at the wharf in St. Andrews over what they describe as Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier’s “continued mismanagement and failure to address critical issues in the industry,” according to a release from the Fundy North Fishermen’s Association, which represents fisheries across lobster fishing area 36, from Alma to St. Stephen, including Campobello Island and Deer Island.
Calling for the minister’s resignation, the fishermen “are alarmed by the ongoing absence of fishery officer patrols on the water in LFA 36, which has allowed illegal fishing and buying activities to continue unchallenged, threatening the livelihoods of local fishermen who operate within the law,” the release states. The association supports the decision of Canadian fisheries officers to refuse work due to the minister’s earlier statements that accused them of racism. They urged Fisheries and Oceans Canada to “implement an enforcement plan and restore order in the region by a specified deadline or risk local fishermen taking matters into their own hands to patrol the waters.”
In response to questions concerning whether fishing laws are being enforced along the U.S. border, Fisheries and Oceans Canada emailed a statement on Sept. 25, saying, “Enforcement activities continue, and we are working to address any reports of unauthorized fishing activity across the region, including in the Bay of Fundy.” The statement notes that the ministers of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Crown Indigenous Relations signed a fisheries agreement with the Peskotomuhkati at Skutik in 2023 for the provision of lobster licenses and the establishment of collaborative management structures respective to Indigenous fisheries.
The Fisheries and Oceans Canada statement continued that Canada “has not made any determination of whether the Passamaquoddy in the United States are ‘Aboriginal peoples of Canada.’” It added, “The U.S. based Passamaquoddy communities have not been recognized as having treaty rights in Canada, and as such the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will continue to enforce violations of the international boundaries, as it would for non Indigenous harvesters.”