Boiling Point

Stolen gear, severed traplines, blocked boats, and a ransacked lobster plant set ablaze. It all unfolded on the shores of St. Marys Bay, in southwestern Nova Scotia, in the fall of 2020. The conflict boiled over when the local Mi’kmaw community, Sipekne’katik First Nation, angered a throng of non-Indigenous fishers by implementing its treaty right to operate a lobster fishery outside of the federally regulated season. Contested Waters reads as a time capsule of the ensuing dispute, while exploring its historical roots, the need for reconciliation in commercial fisheries, and possible flashpoints ahead. Edited by Fred Wien, an emeritus professor at Dalhousie University and a former staff member of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and Rick Williams, research director for the Canadian Council of Fish Harvesters, this valuable book assembles more than two dozen contributions from Mi’kmaw and non-Indigenous leaders, academic and legal...