Coldwater Lobster Association

10/31/2025

10/30/2025

The Sipekne’katik First Nation has been ordered to pay a commercial fishermen’s association $15,000 in court costs.

On Thursday, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice John Keith approved the application for costs by the Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance (UFCA) but found fault with the group’s claim that it had spent $334,000 responding to Sipekne’katik’s lawsuit.

He settled on the amount of $15,000 as being fair.

➡️INTERVENORS

Sipekne’katik First Nation lawyers had argued that the UFCA had no claim to costs because it was only an intervenor in the band’s lawsuit against the federal government. That suit was filed in 2020 by Sipekne’katik First Nation against Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Attorney General of Canada over the seizing of traps set by its fishers in St. Mary’s Bay.

Sipekne’katik claimed in the suit and in subsequent letters to DFO brass that a series of Supreme Court of Canada rights-based decisions, including the 1999 Marshall decision, and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples meant the federal government does not have the authority to interfere in its self-managed fisheries.

The suit, had it progressed, would have seen the courts weigh back in on what constitutes a First Nation “moderate livelihood” fishery and how it’s regulated, 25 years after the Supreme Court of Canada coined the term in R v. Marshall and directed the federal government to consult with First Nations on implementing the right.

With tensions rising in southwest Nova Scotia around Sipekne’katik’s self-regulated fishery in 2020, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court prioritized the case on an accelerated timeline that allowed it to, as Keith stated, “jump the queue.”

The federal government filed thousands of pages of evidence and Sipekne’katik filed hundreds. Commercial fishermen sought and won, over the objections of Sipekne’katik, permission from the court to participate as an intervenor.

➡️LAWSUIT DISSOLVES

In June 2023, the day before the court began discovery, a process during which witnesses are interviewed before the trial begins, the federal government and Sipekne’katik sought to put the suit on hold so they could enter into confidential “nation to nation” negotiations.

Keith allowed the move and gave the parties six months to reach an agreement. When they returned without one, he gave them another six months but warned that if they didn’t reach an agreement the court would proceed with the case.

In June of this year, with no agreement in place and a day before discovery was set to begin anew, Sipekne’katik notifed the court it would drop the lawsuit altogether.

“The manner in which this matter proceeded was somewhat unusual and unfortunate,” said Keith in his decision awarding costs to the UFCA.

“Particularly given the late cancellation of discovery examinations twice, both occurring virtually the day before discoveries were about to begin and only after an extensive amount of time was set aside to complete the process.”

⬇️ON THE RULING

In his decision, Keith acknowledged his sympathy to the potentially chilling effect a cost award could have on First Nations seeking rights-based cases with the courts. However, he found the UFCA’s participation was constructive and noted testimony by federal Crown attorneys stating that the interests of non-aboriginal fishing communities were not being considered in the confidential negotiations with Sipekne’katik.

Those negotiations have apparently fallen apart.

Chief Michelle Glasgow of Sipekne’katik did not immediately respond to a Chronicle Herald request for comment Thursday.

UFCA spokesman Colin Sproul called the ruling a victory.

“It was a clear recognition by Justice Keith that we are an interested party in the implementation of treaty rights and that we’ve been excluded from this role by the federal government,” said Sproul on Thursday.

“That our views mattered. We’re also happy to see the justice recognize our good intentions and good conduct. We’re happy to see him call out the bad conduct of the other parties, for having acted in underhanded ways to deliberately cause more costs for the fishing families that make up the UFCA.”

❓Meanwhile, questions raised by the lawsuit remain unresolved.

Self-regulated rights-based fisheries have been pursued by Mi’kmaq in St. Mary’s Bay and southern Cape Breton.

Since the Marshall decision, the federal government has spent over $1 billion buying up 2,217 commercial fishing licences and transferring them along with gear and training to First Nations in the Maritime provinces. But copies of those agreements seen by The Chronicle Herald state that they are without prejudice to the right. In many of them, individual First Nations agree not to pursue the moderate livelihood right for five-year periods, effectively kicking the issue down a federal election cycle in exchange for access.

Over recent years, First Nations in Nova Scotia have refused to sign any more ad hoc agreements to not pursue the right. Most recently, the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs refused a $259.4-million offer from the federal government that would have seen the money transferred directly to band councils to buy up access and equipment as they see fit.

10/29/2025

MANDATORY COURSE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE

The Fatigue Management course can be teken online and doesn’t take long to complete. You’ll need your CDN number which should be on your Transport Canada papers. If not call TC in Yarmouth 902-742-2403 if you fish SW Nova.

Follow the link below to register:

⬇️REGISTER⬇️

https://www.ccohs.ca/distributors/transport-canada

10/29/2025

LOW WATER PROTOCOL for LFA 34:
what you need to know

10/22/2025

It would appear that DFO has really stepped up their enforcement in recent weeks. 👏 👏

On October 16, our fishery officers seized 87 crates of lobsters that were originally harvested in the area of St. Peter’s Canal, Cape Breton (Lobster Fishing Area 29) and transported to a fish plant in Port Mouton, located in Queens County. One individual located in Liverpool was arrested in connection with the shipment of lobsters, for providing false statements to a fishery officer.
A total of 6,466 lobsters were taken back to LFA 29 where they were released back into the ocean.
An investigation into this matter is now underway; no further details will be provided.