I find it really disheartening, because as I looked at and participated in stuff in Saulnierville.... I went there as somewhat of a peacekeeper, really, because I knew tensions would rise. The fact that DFO is not going out there in the water and doing what it is supposed to do resonates with the Mi'kmaq people, who feel that DFO doesn't really care about the Mi'kmaq and the government doesn't really care about the Mi'kmaq.

I've witnessed the minister make statements over the last couple of months as industry has rallied and protested in front of her office. I know it's not an easy task to take, and I certainly feel for her. I am a former politician myself and having being involved in politics all my life, I know that you can't please everybody.

But, one thing you have to be careful about when you talk about infringing on aboriginal rights and what we have in treaties is that they should be protected under law by any government agency, whether it be DFO, RCMP or any other agency that's out there. That just didn't happen.

Instead, industry got its way and it was very, very disheartening and really frightening, in my opinion—as I said, I am an ex-police officer—to witness all the injustices taking place in the water. It was like a war zone and we were all praying that nobody would get hurt, but the boats came really close to ramming individual Mi'kmaq boats, which were much smaller in comparison to the other vessels that were out there.

The minister, in my opinion, didn't act properly. She should have made a bold statement there. Instead, the statements were made after the riots and stuff took place.

That could very easily have led to a confrontation. Actually, a couple of times when the two nations got together—the Mi'kmaq and the non-native fishermen—I had to stand in between, along with an ex-police officer from the area, from Sipekne'katik, and we had to convince our people not to take things into their own hands. A couple of times we prevented a lot of violence from happening.

When you look at it, it hurts you as an individual when you know you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, when you have the treaty right to do that and you should be protected. As I said, as an officer, you have sworn to protect the Constitution of Canada under whatever regulations, whether it's the RCMP Act or the Fisheries Act. At the end of the day, the Constitution is the Constitution and that's where all of the country's rights lie. For a government not to act upon what it sees is really hurtful, and I'm just glad nobody got killed over there.

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