By Canadian Press

Officer receives suspension after two Mi’kmaq elver fishers left without boots

Dec 11, 2024 | 12:34 PM

HALIFAX — A federal fisheries officer has been suspended for 10 days without pay for his role in arresting two Mi’kmaq elver fishers late at night and releasing them in only their socked feet.

Kevin Hartling and Blaise Sylliboy, both in their 20s, were arrested on March 26 as they fished for baby eels near Shelburne, N.S.

They said three fisheries officers confiscated their phones and hip waders before leaving them at a gas station about a 45-minute drive from where they had been fishing.

Hartling has said that after the two men were asked to leave the gas station, they walked in the cold without boots along a highway in southern Nova Scotia for hours before they were able to borrow a cellphone to reach a friend, who came and picked them up.

The Canadian Press verified the penalty imposed on one officer but was unable to confirm what sanctions were imposed on the two more junior fishery officers.

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A source who didn’t want to be identified due to potential employment repercussions reported that many federal Fisheries Department enforcement officers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick booked off on mental health leave today to protest the penalties imposed.

The Union of Health and Environment Workers, which represents the officers, declined comment on the sanctions and on the officers’ protest.

Federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier declined comment, and a spokeswoman for the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs said they had no comment on an “internal DFO matter.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press