RAVEN calls on the Federal and Nova Scotia Governments to uphold the honour and integrity of the Crown in their dealings with the Mi’kmaq people.

RAVEN  (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs) calls on the Federal and Nova Scotia Governments to uphold the honour and integrity of the Crown in their dealings with the Mi’kmaq people and secure peace and friendship consistent with treaty promises. 

RAVEN is disheartened at the violence being perpetrated against Mi’kmaq people in an attempt to interfere with the exercise of a lawful right protected in the Constitution.

As a society governed by the rule of law, we are deeply concerned by the actions of vigilante mobs taking the law into their own hands. We stand with Nations from coast to coast to coast in decrying racist violence and the ruination of livelihoods. The RCMP and Government officials must act to protect the exercise of a treaty right by the Mi’kmaq. To do otherwise runs the risk of turning the Treaty right into a hollow shell. 

It is clear that the RCMP have the capacity to mobilize significant resources, to purportedly keep the peace, where Indigenous peoples are exercising their rights. This police mobilization has included highly militarized officers, enforcing the rights of corporations against Indigenous peoples in order to facilitate access to territory against the consent of those peoples. There can be no double standards – the Mi’kmaq deserve at least the same level of legal protection afforded to corporations. 

The tyranny of the mob cannot be allowed to erode the Constitution. Mobs in Nova Scotia have attacked Mi’kmaq lobster traps, thrown stones and set fires. This behavior must be met with swift condemnation. Our response must leave no place for blatant and violent racism.

All across Turtle Island, Indigenous Peoples and settlers are standing up against the injustice faced by Mi’kmaq, Wet’suwet’en, Secwepemc, Haudenosaunee and Algonquin Peoples. We stand in solidarity with these Nations and all Indigenous Peoples, and demand that the Canadian government respect Indigenous Law and sovereignty.

Photography by Colin Smith @colinsmithtakespics

In Solidarity,

Jeffrey Nicholls, President

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