Terror, violence and organized crime: Inside the lawless East Coast fishery – National Post

May 01, 2025

How Ottawa pitted First Nations and traditional fishing communities against one another and sparked a war in Atlantic Canada

In the chill dark of a March night on a Nova Scotia river, a hip-wader-wearing woman put Canda’s sovereignty to the test.

Or rather, the 40 or so net-wielding members of Sipekne’katik First Nation on the opposite bank were calling Canada’s bluff.

They caught juvenile American eels (elvers) under their own band-issued licenses in defiance of a Fisheries Act requiring them to have licenses approved by the federal fisheries minister.

“I think it was the fourth call to DFO I asked their dispatch if they could say whether any officers were on duty,” said Suzy Edwards, a commercial elver harvester.

Read More: https://nationalpost.com/feature/atlantic-canada-fishing-wars