September 12, 2000
ESGENOÔPETITJ (Burnt Church, N.B.) – 
Christian Peacemaker Teams
506-779-5886, 506-776-0065


FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COMPROMISES 
MEDIATION PROCESS

Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) officers, with 
the assistance of the RCMP, arrested sixteen people on 
the waters near this community this morning. Those arrested include
Esgenoôpetitj Chief Wilbur Dedam, Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC) human
rights observer Tracy Sinclair of North Bay, ON, five Mi’kmaq Rangers
(Fisheries Officers) and nine Mi’kmaq fishers.

The incident began when a fleet of RCMP vessels seized Chief 
Dedam’s fishing boat. RCMP officers tear gassed the Esgenoôpetitj Rangers 
who responded to Dedam’s distress call. Arrested fisheries officer Roland 
Joe said, “when the smoke cleared the federal officers were pointing 
machine guns at us.” An RCMP vessel rammed and sunk a second Ranger boat 
driven by fisheries officer Brian Caplin, throwing three Mi’kmaq fisheries 
officers and ARC observer Tracy Sinclair into the choppy ocean waters.

Donald Barnaby, a Listiguj Ranger thrown from the boat, was injured in the 
raid and is being monitored at the Tracadie Hospital. Barnaby sustained 
back injuries on August 16, 2000, when a DFO boat intentionally rammed his 
boat. As police officers led Esgenoôpetitj Ranger Curtis Bartibogue into 
the Tracadie police station in handcuffs, he told CPTer Pierre Shantz that 
he and the others had been pepper sprayed while still in the water.

CPTer William Payne of Toronto spoke with jailed ARC observer Tracy 
Sinclair, “They are treating me completely differently than the Mi’kmaq 
teenager I am with,” she reported. “He has been in handcuffs for several 
hours but they took mine off while I was still on the water.” She added, 
“They have taken my video camera and tape and are refusing to let me have 
them.”

CPTer Pierre Shantz, waiting outside the Tracadie RCMP detachment for an 
update on the status of those in custody said, “It is clear that the RCMP 
have lost every semblance of neutrality and are being used as a tool of the 
DFO and the federal government. I think that it is time for the United 
Nations and Amnesty International to send observers here.”

Maintaining a human rights observer presence at the Esgenoôpetitj 
community’s wharf, CPTer Jamey Bouwmeester of Elgin, Illinois said, 
“Agreeing to mediation one moment, sinking boats and pepper spraying those 
thrown overboard the next moment, the DFO is either totally incompetent or 
coldly malicious.”

Christian Peacemaker Teams is a violence reduction program of the 
Mennonites, the Church of the Brethren, and Quakers. CPT has come by 
invitation of the people of Esgenoôpetitj to accompany the First Nations 
people as they struggle for respect and for the recognition of their 
inherent rights to fish. Members of the CPT team presently include Jamey 
Bouwmeester (Elgin, Illinois), Joel Klassen (Kitchener, ON), William Payne 
(Toronto, ON), Pierre Shantz (Kitchener, ON), Janet Shoemaker (Goshen, 
Indiana) and Lena Siegers (Brussels, ON). The Aboriginal Rights Coalition 
is sponsored by the mainline churches in Canada.

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