CPTnet
May 21, 2001
MIRAMICHI, NEW BRUNSWICK: CPTers given absolute discharge by court

Yesterday afternoon, after finding Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) members
Fr. Robert Holmes (64) and William Payne (37) guilty of the offense of
"obstructing a fisheries officer," Judge Henrik Tonning of the New Brunswick
Provincial Court granted an absolute discharge. There will be no record of
the convictions.

On May 6, 2000, Holmes and Payne climbed aboard a
Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) boat as it was being taken out of
the water on a trailer. They were attempting to reclaim 10 lobster traps
which had been confiscated from Mi'kmaq fisher Brian Bartibogue's boat an
hour earlier near the Burnt Church wharf.

The traps had official Mi'kmaq tags distributed according to the Management
Plan of the Esgenoopetitj (Burnt Church) Aboriginal community. The
Esgenoopetitj First Nation had refused to sign an agreement with the DFO out
of concern that their inherent rights, already recognized by a series of
Peace and Friendship treaties and by Canada's Supreme Court, would be
compromised. Esgenoopetitj has decided through a referendum of the whole
community to regulate their own fishery.

In his decision, Judge Henrik Tonning said he accepted the defendants' moral
motivation for action but could not accept the legal arguments put forward
to justify what he considered essentially an illegal act. The judge also
said he agreed with the defendants' description of a long and continuing
history of injustice on the part of the Canadian government towards
Aboriginal nations and stated that he thought things might improve if more
non-natives were active in their opposition to government action.

In sentencing the defendants, the judge stated that he thought Holmes and
Payne "were doing more good than bad, both in the local situation and
elsewhere in the world," and that he did not want to impede this work.

Reached in the West Bank city of Hebron where he is part of another CPT
violence-reduction project, Holmes said, "A Canadian judge has acknowledged
the long and painful history of Aboriginal people at the hands of
government. This should be a wake-up call for Canadians."

At the invitation of the Mi'kmaq community, CPT has again placed a
violence-reduction team in Esgenoopetitj for the 2001 lobster fishery.
Present team-members are Natasha Krahn (Waterloo, ON), Janet Shoemaker
(Goshen, IN), Lena Siegers (Blythe, ON) and William Payne, Vern Riediger and
Jane Wright (all of Toronto, ON ). CPT presently has teams in the Hebron,
Colombia, Chiapas (Mexico) and Esgenoopetitj (Burnt Church, NB).