‘Honour our treaties or leave’: protesters rally against RCMP raids

“Enough is Enough.”

That was the message from around 200 protesters who gathered in Dartmouth near the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge on March 10, rallying against RCMP raids on Mi’kmaw truckhouses and demanding government accountability for treaty violations. 

The protest, set against a backdrop of drumbeats and honking horns, began at noon and drew people from across the province.

Demonstrators crossed the intersection at Wyse Road and Nantucket Avenue, holding signs that read ‘Cannabis is not a crime,’ ‘RCMP, have you learned nothing?’ and ‘The only accessible test for treaty rights is UNDRIP.’ Others waved Mi’kmaw flags while calling out, “Honour our treaties or leave our land.” 

“This is more than just about truckhouses. This is about the Canadian government holding up their end of the treaties they signed with our people,” Jolene Marr said in an interview at the protest. 

Marr, a member of the Micmac Rights Association (MRA) and a Sipekne’katik band member, said she has been fighting for Indigenous rights her whole life. 

She said this protest was part of an ongoing fight over long-standing treaty rights and violations.

Central to the dispute is the “truckhouse clause,” part of the 1760-61 Peace and Friendship Treaties, which guarantees Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik, and Peskotomuhkati peoples access to government-run trading posts (truckhouses) where they could trade their goods for a moderate livelihood.

The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed this right, but the enforcement remains a point of contention between Indigenous communities and government authorities. 

In early February, RCMP raided 13 Mi’kmaw sheds and homes, charging 21 people and seizing cannabis, tobacco, guns and $16,000 in cash. They said the outlets were connected to organized crime and were operating illegally.

In a press release published on Feb. 7, the MRA said the RCMP violated the Indian Act by “removing property from reserve, invading Mi’kmaw homes on reserve, trashing personal belongings and Mi’kmaw artifacts and violently assaulting and harming Mi’kmaw people as part of a campaign of intimidation.” 

Among those protesting was Jessica Tony, owner of Grassroots Trading Post & Craft Cannabis, a truckhouse near Cambridge that was raided by the RCMP.

In an interview at the rally, she told The Signal that she and her husband were both charged and jailed and that RCMP officers mishandled her traditional drum and medicines. 

“We’re opening up shop again,” Tony said. “We’re not sitting down. Whether they keep taking it, we’ll still be back up and running.”  

Former chief of the National Indian Brotherhood Delbert Riley told The Signal that the harassment of Mi’kmaq people by the RCMP and fisheries officers is unacceptable. 

“These people don’t have any economy because of the white racism, both from Ottawa and the provinces who have usurped their land when they own it outright here, lock, stock and barrel,” Riley said.  

“The Mi’kmaq will win this.”