The Yukon legislature has voted unanimously to support Mi’kmaq fisheries in the legislative assembly.

The motion was introduced last Wednesday by NDP Leader Kate White. It called for the Yukon government’s public denouncement of violence against Mi’kmaq people and the RCMP’s “failure to protect Mi’kmaq communities.”

The motion also calls on the federal government to implement a moderate livelihood fishery in collaboration with the Sipekne’katik First Nation.

A Mi’kmaq lobster fishery in Nova Scotia has experienced ongoing harassment and violence after it opened a moderate livelihood fishery last month –– including a lobster pound that was burned to the ground on Oct. 17. The events have spurred nationwide protests in support of Mi’kmaw fishers.

“No longer can we sit smugly up in Canada denying that racism exists here while pointing south of the border to the overt racism that we see there,” White said.

“The violence that has erupted in Nova Scotia is jarring – it is hard to watch even from the other side of the country.”

The Mi’kmaq have a constitutional right to moderate livelihood fishing – meaning Mi’kmaw people have a right to make a living via local resources as a sovereign nation on unceded territory, White explained.

“When we see the violence that has been directed at Mi’kmaw fishers, we have to ask: Where was the RCMP?” White said.

“Seeing Indigenous fishers being intimidated, barricaded in their pound, and having their property destroyed is shocking – but this conflict isn’t new and these tensions are not new.”

Pauline Frost, the minister of Health and Social Services, noted in the assembly that the issue facing Mi’kmaw fishers is one aspect of a larger societal problem.

“I think that there are significant underlying issues around the rights of Indigenous people,” Frost said.

“It’s really about what has long existed, and that is the pervasive, systemic racism that we have known to exist.”

Frost is the MLA for Old Crow and a Vuntut Gwitchin citizen. While the Yukon is unique in its systems of self-governance, she said, the Indian Act stripped many Yukon Indigenous people of their rights as recently as the 1980s.

“These are real issues, very alive and well and very recent and raw for all of us,” Frost said.

Liberal MLA Don Hutton spoke on the history of Mi’kmaq fishers’ connection to the land.

“The Mi’kmaq people have a long-standing history … harvesting the coastlines for shellfish and sea mammals,” Hutton said.

“Unfortunately, the Mi’kmaq were among some of the first Aboriginal people in North America to interact with European explorers and settlers.”

Hutton explained that over half of the Mi’kmaq population was lost between the 1500s and 1600s.

“The social and cultural disruption and violence continues today … and I would expect any sensible government or human to condemn this type of behaviour without hesitation.”

Premier Sandy Silver also spoke in support of the motion.

Silver, who hales from Antigonish, N.S. – Mi’kmaq territory – said his father was a lobster fisherman and harbourmaster.

“He would be rolling in his grave right now if he knew what was happening back home,” Silver said.

White closed the debate by drawing a parallel between support for Mi’kmaq fishers and combating systemic racism as a whole.

“When we stand in solidarity on this issue, it means that we are recognizing the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples across the country, from coast to coast to coast, and that is incredibly important,” White said.

“When the Mi’kmaq communities are fighting for their treaty right to access their own lands and waters, we all have a duty to stand with them, and so it is critical that we denounce overt and systemic racism when we see it.”