SAULT STE. MARIE -- On a damp day in Sault Ste. Marie, nearly 50 people participated in a peaceful march to show their support to the Mi'Kmaq fishers in Nova Scotia.
The march started at the Station Mall parking lot Wednesday and included a stop in front of Sault Ste. Marie MP Terry Sheehan's office, before wrapping up outside the local RCMP office.
"Enough is enough," said Paula Nicholas, one of the organizers of the march. "This is a call to action, this is terrorism, the violence. We want to know why the RCMP is standing there and doing nothing."
Nicholas has been watching what has been unfolding in Nova Scotia with a close eye. Some of her family members are Mi'kmaq fishers.
"We’ve had cousins who have been --- flare guns have been shot at their boats," she said.
Nicholas organized the march in part because she can't be with her family during this difficult time.
"I feel helpless because of COVID," she said. "I can’t be there with my family and we can’t be with our family because the Atlantic bubble ... So for me this is my little bit to show them, to show them my support."
Participants marched around the downtown core with signs and a speaker phone shouting out support for the fishers.
Karrie Rutledge-Oliver said she wants to see the violence come to an end right away and for the treaty to be enforced. Rutledge-Oliver wonders what will happen with the other treaties signed across the country if this one is allowed to be overruled,
"Immediate thing is to have the criminal activities halted and stopped," she said. "And deal with the issues of what treaty means in this country and to make sure that those who are not Indigenous understand that treaty means privileges and privileges have responsibilities otherwise you lose those privileges."
Also on Wednesday, traffic was slowed down on Highway 17 between Serpent River First Nation and Mississauga First Nation. The First Nations wanted to show their support of the Mi'kmaq Indigenous fishing rights.
