Posted by: chupacabra
Posted by: meloroast
The goc is not actually forced by legal decision in practice. I worked for GOC for 11 years on Indigenous files and there are multiple legal decisions against GOC, but with little weight for implementation. The courts often make rulings but then "leave it up to gov" to define and determine how to actually implement the decision in concert with the Indigenous group. When it comes to resource sharing like fish, the only way to allow Indigenous groups more access to fish, is to "take away" from the non-Indigenous commercial sector...which DFO never wants to do.
To say the GOC drags its feet would be an understatement. How to define "moderate livelihood" for east coast lobster fishery is a perfect example. The Mi’kmaw right to fish for the purposes of earning a moderate livelihood was made via SCC decision 23 years ago and DFO has been twiddling their thumbs for decades. There is very little recourse the Indigenous groups other than going back to court, often a resulting in courts saying "hey we made our decision now you guys go figure it out".
As slow as it may be, there is still more incentive to actually do something than there is for the Catholic Church. I also think when legal decisions are made using terminology like "moderate livelihood" they are setting the system up for failure. There is almost no way to define that. Personally, I think any commercial activity should be managed as one and not divided. There are a large number of indigenous fishermen in the "non-indigenous fishery" anyway, so their share could be increased by buying licenses from the open market for the various bands without taking the fishery from anyone, but that is a whole other discussion. I think food fishing should be managed completely separately, but it needs to be managed.
It's not as simple as you are making it out to be. Food, social, ceremonial (FSC) fisheries are and have been managed separate from commercial for decades. It always leaved Indigenous groups far behind so saying "hey just go buy licenses on the open market" is not a solution. It is what most executives at DFO also see as the solution, but that playing field is not levelled so it's basically an easy way to just keep status quo going (which has historically always allowed those 'with' to continue gaining more while most FNs in BC continue to struggle in poverty).
As one example of complexities of FSC vs commercial...often, due to migratory timing, commercial sector fishes a stock BEFORE FSC. Even though FSC has constitutional priority. Think herring and salmon. This means DFO estimates stock size (almost always wrong), commercial sector fishes, then oops, actually the returns are smaller so FSC fishery gets little to nothing. But DFO doesn't want to impose more conservative returns due to industry pressure. Who loses out? I wonder...
And there is a definite need for a 'livelihood' based commercial fishery for Indigenous groups, primarily to support basic community needs (that also includes cultural elements) and alleviate the current poverty model (that also taxes the system). Yes, managing the commercial sector "as one" is easier. Especially from a "white" or colonial lens. Indigenous communities do not view the fisheries in the same way. So if we actually want to support reconciliation, it has to include an alternate view of the world, not just the old colonial ways.
Anyway, it's very complex. I've worked in it for almost 20 years and I wish these complexities were communicated to the masses more often. Only way to reconcile is to let go and allow change to permeate the system. We can't continue as we've been doing and expect fish and licenses to just show up. They are very limited. Even with GOC throwing money at FNs, they is always going to be the challenge of limited entry licenses/quotas and of course, fish.
