Fisheries committee  I am mid-Ph.D. You can call me Professor Metallic. Thank you.

Fisheries committee  I don't have any direct experience with that, but there's been some excellent coverage of that by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. Angel Moore in particular is a journalist who has gone in depth and I guess under cover. She got infiltrated into the Facebook of our C and P officers, where in fact there were several disparaging, discriminatory and racist comments about that, and she reported on some of these issues.

Fisheries committee  —but there certainly are issues.

Fisheries committee  Not having a clear recollection of exactly when this conversation was, I think it goes back to this idea of collaborating. If Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqey first nations were seen as having a role, seen as having a management role, and that management role was seen to be collaborative or in partnership with C and P officers, maybe there could be training, collaboration, joint work, shared information or data sharing.

Fisheries committee  I have not directly witnessed any.

Fisheries committee  I think that is an excellent summary of some of the public sentiment. When I was invited to come and I was reading the different transcripts, I had these same concerns about how, for some witnesses, indigenous fisheries were being framed as IUU as opposed to constitutional rights that have yet to be fully implemented.

Fisheries committee  Yes, it is, but it has to be proven. There has to be evidence to establish that it is indeed a valid objective in that particular context.

Fisheries committee  Yes. I said it in my submissions as well.

Fisheries committee  I do. In fact, I litigated a case on this a couple of years ago and spent the better part of a morning taking the trial judge through both Marshall I and II, stopping at every point where the court said that it is a treaty right to fish and hunt for a moderate livelihood. In Marshall II it's actually really helpful if you read it all the way through.

Fisheries committee  I teach at a law school, so I do in my classroom and with my students. More broadly I think there is greater education. Of course, what happened on the water in 2020, I think, has led to more discourse. In Halifax I have certainly seen different members of the public have questions and want to learn more.

Fisheries committee  It's perhaps both. I think that there are examples of systemic racism against fishers. There needs to be reconciliation. That needs to happen and be worked on. There also needs to be work between the first nations and the government to recognize the role that the communities can play in the fisheries.

Fisheries committee  I think that education is a really important piece of this, as well as understanding the protection of constitutionally protected rights. They're not a bogeyman. They're not a bad thing. They are part of who we are as Canadians. We have francophones on the panel whom we protect through minority language rights in New Brunswick and other minority language rights in other parts of the country.

Fisheries committee  To my knowledge, there's been very little effort—if it's ever been contemplated—to make changes to the Fisheries Act or the regulations in order to accommodate the treaty right, although that was specifically mentioned by Justice Binnie in Marshall I. Most of the conversation has been at negotiation tables and, as I say, there have been delays and they haven't amounted to very much.

Fisheries committee  I am from the Listuguj Mi’gmaq first nation. I am a lawyer and law professor, and I thank you for the invitation. In reviewing the testimony before the committee, I am concerned that some of the discussion has been one-sided, and often equates indigenous fishing with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.