SSJC Letter in Solidarity with the Mi'kmaq Nation and the Enactment of Indigenous Rights in Canada

October 22, 2020

To those empowered to take action on supporting Indigenous Rights,

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

CC: Minister of Fisheries and Oceans

       NS Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture

       NS Minister of Justice

       Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations

       Minister of Public Safety  

On behalf of the members of the Teaching Support Staff Union’s (TSSU) Solidarity and Social Justice Committee, we write to express condemnation of the attack on Indigenous sovereignty in enacting Treaty rights that have been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1999 Marshall decision. We acknowledge the violation of Treaty and human rights being experienced in Mi’kmaki, but also the precedent this sets for other Indigenous nations expressing their rights in this moment and into the future. As an organisation dedicated to upholding fairness , we see your (in)actions on this matter as a violation of not only Canadian and Mi’kmaq law, but all of the statements you have made regarding the building of equality for Indigenous communities and commitments to reconciliation.

The SSJC acknowledges the recent injunction announced to protect Mi’kmaq rights to fish. However, we must also recognise the scale of violence the Mi’kmaq people had to face before receiving basic protection of their rights. If this is what must be faced by Indigenous nations seeking to enact their rights in all cases across Canada, it is very clear that some other mechanism needs to be in place to achieve any form of reconciliation. 

A similar demand has recently been put forward by Jody Wilson-Raybould, who states that “a framework is needed to recognize issues that Indigenous peoples face in terms of being denied their rights and having to go through the courts to prove that their rights exist.” This is particularly the case for the Mi’kmaq who have gone to court over many years for recognition of these rights. 

The Peace & Friendship Treaties guarantee the rights of Mi’kmaq to catch and sell fish, as affirmed by the 

Supreme Court of Canada in the R v. Marshall case in 1999. As set out in Marshall, the Mi’kmaq have a right to fish for a “moderate livelihood.” On September 18, 2020, Sipekne’katik First Nation announced its own self-regulated livelihood fishery, as a sovereign people. As was the case in Esgenoopetitj (Burnt Church), the Mi'kmaq have a conservation management plan that is not to be controlled by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Licenses and tags were distributed during a peaceful ceremony and celebration, while more than 50 non-Indigenous fisher boats surrounded the harbour, forming a blockade and infringing on the legal treaty rights of Mi’kmaq peoples. 

That evening, Mi’kmaq fisher fleets were just metres offshore checking lobster traps when non-Indigenous fisherpeople began to chase them and fire flares at their boats. Mi’kmaq fisherpeople have faced other forms of harassment and discrimination, including damage to their boats and vehicles, stolen fishing gear, and cut buoy lines. They have also been denied goods such as fuel, bait, and accommodations at Nova Scotian businesses. Since then, Mi’kmaq peoples have been terrorised by white fishermen in the form of arson, physical assault, and harassment. While this has occurred, the RCMP supported and negotiated on behalf of non-Indigenous fishermen in achieving their goal of destroying Mi’kmaq livelihoods by appearing to “stand by.” To be clear: inaction by the RCMP is action in that it upholds a racist and colonial status quo. The spokesperson for the Nova Scotia RCMP has gone so far as to state the violation of Mi’kmaq safety and rights on their own territory as “not a police issue.” 

The Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen Association issued a statement claiming that Sipekne’katik’s issuance of licenses is “not based in Canadian law” and that “in the absence of law and order good people can be forced to take the law into their own hands and the responsibility for that falls squarely on Minister [of Fisheries] Jordan and her predecessors who have not enforced the rules” (emphasis added). Furthermore, white fishermen are now calling for a one-year moratorium on Mi’kmaq fisheries to allow for a legal definition of “moderate livelihood.” 

Those basing their claims to end or disrupt Mi’kmaq rights in conservation frameworks have also wasted hundreds of lobster as part of their attacks, thereby nullifying their argument. Furthermore, such claims marginalise the thousands of years of conservation enacted by Mi’kmaq peoples since time immemorial. It is time - more than time - that the DFO and governments at all levels recognise the experience and knowledge of Indigenous peoples in regards to their own territories.

All of these actions and inactions speak to a racist and colonial response that is allowing terrorism to continue on Indigenous land. Treaty rights are Canadian law. This racism is not only unacceptable, it is illegal. All threats and attacks from non-Indigenous fisherpeople must be stopped and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

We demand that all levels of government including the Office of the Prime Minister and the DFO negotiate in good faith to ensure that the Marshall Decision is respected, based on the inherent rights and treaty rights of Mi’kmaq people to hunt, fish, and gather, as protected by Section 35 of the 

Canadian Constitution. This includes agreeing to self-management by the Mi'kmaq rather than continuing control by the DFO. It is the duty of the Canadian provincial and federal governments to uphold the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples, as per section 35 of the Constitution, the Peace & Friendship Treaties, and attendant case law. 

We call on your governments to take immediate action to:

These actions must be taken on Mi’kmaq territory, as well as on all Indigenous lands.

We look forward to hearing the response of your governments,

Solidarity and Social Justice Committee

Teaching Support Staff Union

ssjc@tssu.ca

SSJC Letter in Response to BC Government Announcement on Support for Renters During COVID-19 Pandemic

To Hon. Premier Horgan and Minister Robison,

The Solidarity & Social Justice Committee of the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) stands in solidarity with working class and working poor renters across the province who are feeling the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic in acute and unique ways. We applaud the announcement on March 25 regarding the moratorium on evictions and rent increases. This eviction ban is especially important, as it ensures no one unable to pay rent on April 1 will lose their housing. However, we do not feel the $500 subsidy to be paid directly to landlords addresses this need in the systemic way that is required at this time. Furthermore, it does not speak to the high cost of housing and the urgency of need many are facing with the looming April 1st due date of rent. The sky-high rents in BC mean that the federal and provincial governments alike will need to take further, immediate action and significantly boost the income supports already announced to ensure that households can actually meet their needs as we get through this crisis.

In particular, your announcement and narrative of trusting in the kindliness of landlords during this time is misplaced and does not seem to grasp the power imbalances that remain present, if not exacerbated, during this crisis. As a union who understands the importance of collective power and action, we would never ask our members to directly confront those who hold power over them. As a union we would not tell a member to speak to their boss without a shop steward present. Telling individual people experiencing precarity in job security, income, and health to approach unequal power alone is not leadership or justice. The conversations you are suggesting renters have with their landlords are not starting from a good or fair place. Furthermore, we know from our members that following your announcement, many received explicit direction from their landlords who insist on the payment of rent through whatever means necessary. 

Furthermore, the $500 subsidy your government has announced removes agency of those tenants who are putting the efforts in to apply for this funding, with this money going directly into the pockets of landlords. This speaks to a lack of trust in working class people and the mythology that they will exploit the system or do not know how to properly manage their monies. Furthermore, this funding will be turned over even after tenants have paid a full month’s rent for April, given that the application portal will not even be made available through BC Housing until well after the April 1st due date. If the federal and provincial emergency income supports are not reaching households quickly enough and remain at inadequate levels, rent cancellation will need to be extended to May. As noted by CCPA, In many European countries, workers’ incomes affected by COVID-19 are being replaced at rates of up to 90%, compared to Canada’s Employment Insurance replacement rate of only 55% up to only $54,000 in insurable earnings, which means a maximum benefit of about $2,300 per month—barely enough to cover average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in Vancouver. Benefit rates will be even lower for those who will receive stop-gap federal emergency benefits rather than regular EI. There are also many limits and unknown means tests for who can apply for all of these different funding structures including the proposed rental subsidy, with many already announced excluding those who are already homeless and unemployed, freelancers, students who are about to enter the job market.

This also leads to the question of why landlords should expect to maintain the same level of income on their investments when so many working people are struggling. For those who have savings, why should these working people have to spend those hard earned savings to maintain their landlord’s level of comfort in these investments? Regardless of whether someone is still working, rent continues to represent a massive portion of their monthly expenditures. Given that housing is a human right, the actual service landlords provide is exceptionally small. It's inhumane to expect people going through a difficult time to fund the investment of an economic parasite. Centering the health and lives of renters instead of keeping landlords in business should be the priority of your government. 

Therefore, the Solidarity & Social Justice Committee of the TSSU stands behind the recommendations being put forward by the Vancouver Tenants’ Union and the BC Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which call for:

In recent days, we have seen other countries, such as France and Venezuela, announce similar actions including deferral of all rental payments and mortgages for six months. These are universal support models and precedents being enacted right now that can be drawn from to support the working people of British Columbia in more expansive and systemic ways. 

It is also important to highlight that given the long-running homelessness crisis in this province, emergency housing is needed for those without shelter and who cannot self-isolate.  As suggested by the CCPA-BC, this could include requisitioning empty hotel space to provide housing (including appropriate staffing) for people experiencing homelessness, as is currently occurring in jurisdictions like California. Significant increases to income assistance rates are also urgently needed—these are long overdue, and now is the time to finally raise the rates. This is also important given the possibility of a spike in applications for welfare if temporary EI benefits are not extended as the economic crisis unfolds.

It has always been the time to centre the needs of those most marginalised by current systems, but the public health crisis of COVID-19 has made this an especially urgent need. We call on your government to do what is right by listening to those who are facing the most risk at this time. Furthermore, we hope that our governments learn from this moment and make permanent many of the support systems put in place for working people.

Solidarity & Social Justice Committee

Teaching Support Staff Union

ssjc@tssu.ca

SSJC and Contract Committee Joint Letter of Solidarity with UCSC Strikers

From: Solidarity and Social Justice Committee (SSJC) and Contract Committee (CC), Teaching Support Staff Union.

Today, striking graduate workers at the University of California - Santa Cruz (UCSC) are under police threat for demanding that UCSC Administration match their wages to the rising cost of living. At UCSC, wages have not “fallen behind” cost of living, they have been eaten by it. As reported by Salon, “graduate student teaching assistants at UCSC make $2,434 a month before taxes, for only nine months of the year. The median monthly rent in Santa Cruz County is $1,685.” The strikers’ demand an increase of $1,412 to every graduate student regardless of residence, visa, documentation, employment, or funding status and a promise that Administration will not increase tuition or campus fees to offset it. After months of contentious negotiations with the UCSC Administration and a grading strike starting in December, UCSC Graduate Workers finally went on a full strike on February 10, 2020. (1) So far, Administration has chosen to fight students rather than hear their needs. For our members, this story is a familiar one: we, too, have felt the failure of local housing markets to meet human needs, the cynicism of University Administration in the face of student poverty, and the necessity of direct action to make change.

Not only has UCSC Administration failed to provide fair wages to their TAs for years, UC President Janet Napolitano, former Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, has now threatened to violate their collective agreement (2) and fire more than 200 TAs for withholding grades. (3) This threat follows the Administration’s use of police violence to intimidate and arrest strikers. (4) (5) As press reports on the possible deportation of striking students (6) show, UCSC Administration is more concerned with their budget surplus than a duty of care to their students. The strikers have demanded amnesty for all involved in these actions; it must be granted. We condemn UCSC Administration and President Janet Napolitano, as well as the police, for their repression of students and workers. University Administration must do better.

To striking workers: Unlike those characterizing these actions as "illegal" or "unauthorized," we know the history of the strike before labor law. We know that worker power does not come from the National Labor Relations Board, but from our solidarity. We also know that collective struggle takes many forms, so with our words we are including cash for your fight. Give ‘em hell today.