Working in a Good Way: A common denominator

Watershed Watch Salmon Society photo

Coffee, a shared vision and open minds solves an “intractable” conflict

With this story series, we will feature recreation organizations that are advancing reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples through trail and outdoor recreation projects. We hope these stories inspire other community groups to contribute to advancing reconciliation in a meaningful and positive way, thereby ensuring the long-term sustainability of the outdoor recreation activities we love.

In the summer of 2009, tensions on the Fraser River boiled over. An already entrenched and heated relationship between recreational anglers and First Nation food fishers threatened to explode when a sport fisherman shot Sts’ailes Chief Willie Charlie in the face with a pellet gun. 

The incident could have turned into a war on the water, but instead leaders on both sides took a deep breath, looked to the future, and saw the best way forward was dialogue not conflict. Their efforts led to respectful co-operation that continues more than a decade later, even though salmon are in crisis on the Fraser River. 

“I think both sides realised that we’re going to get nowhere if we fight,” says Rod Clapton, the president of the BC Federation of Drift Fishers, a sport fishing advocacy group. “We realised we had to find a way to get along.”

The original conflict built slowly. As salmon returns started to decline in the early 2000s, there were fewer opportunities for sport anglers to fish for chinook and coho, their favoured quarry. As the number of anglers increased, they started to target sockeye as well, which put them into direct competition with Indigenous fisheries for both fish and space on the river. Then sockeye numbers started to decline. Section 35 of the constitution gives priority to First Nations to fish for food, social and ceremonial purposes, over recreation or commercial angler opportunities. There were times when sport anglers weren’t allowed to fish, while Indigenous were. 

Frustration led to misinformation, which devolved into heated words, which built mistrust and tension. Then,  Willie Charlie’s drift-net hung up on the anchor line of a sport fishing boat. When Charlie’s brother tried to untangle it, one of the anglers hit him with a landing net. Charlie went to retaliate with a paddle and that is when the other sport fishermen pulled out a pellet gun and shot him. 

When Clapton and others  heard about the incident they knew something had to change. From years of advocacy work, he’d become a believer in the power of a cup of coffee. “It’s accepted you can get a hell of a lot more done face to face,” he says. Soon he and other members of the recreational fishery were sitting across a table from Willie Charlie and Erne Crey, a Sto:lo journalist and fishing rights advocate who eventually became the chief of the Cheam First Nation, and other First Nations leaders. 

“The first few meetings were pretty tense,” admits Clapton.

But both sides quickly realised they shared the same fears and goals: “How the hell do we save the fishery and have respectful, conflict free fishing opportunities for future generations,” is how Clapton describes it. “One common denominator is huge. The more we met face to face, the more we got to know each other, the more trust we built.”

Together they founded the Fraser River Peacemakers. The collaboration worked to educate both Indigenous and recreational fishermen and build cooperation on stewardship, river safety and conservation projects, but everyone agreed theat they were not ready to discuss fishing and harvesting. The effort successfully reduced conflicts on the river, according to Dave Moore, the executive director of the Peacemakers, even as salmon runs and fishing opportunities decreased. And when conflicts did occured there were parties on both sides who knew each other and could navigate through the issues before it escalated.

In 2017 the Department of Fisheries, Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard awarded the Peacemakers the National Recreational Fisheries Award.

“Over the past eight years, these volunteers from Indigenous and recreational fishing organizations have cultivated an atmosphere of trust and respect between fishing communities along the Fraser River,” said Terry Beach, parliamentary secretary for DFO, at the time.

With fish stocks continuing to decline, the Peacemakers decided they needed to be more inclusive. In 2019, they disbanded and reformed as the Lower Fraser Collaborative Table, expanding their membership to the 30 First Nations of the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance, commercial fishermen and recreational anglers. Similar to the Round Table format used around the province, the idea is to bring recreational and commercial fishing interestes and First Nations rights holders  together to find consensus on issues of common interest. 

“We have to work together to rebuild these stocks [of salmon] while there is still time - and good management means we all have to make sacrifices together,” says Les Antone, a founding member of the LFCT from the Kwantlen First Nation. 

The LFCT’s focus will continue where the Peacemakers left off: promoting collaboration and dialogue on issues like conservation, sustainable harvesting, and information sharing. And for the first time on the Fraser River they’re talking about access to the fishery as well. That is only possible because of the relationships built through the Peacemakers, says Moore.

It’s an important step forward, says Clapton, but he has no expectations of what it will mean.

“It’s a process,” he says. “Nothing is predetermined. We need to be transparent and open to each group’s concerns. Really, it’s just an opportunity to respectfully exchange ideas and thoughts.”

Ryan Stuart started writing about his adventures as a way to get paid to play. Twenty years later he’s still at it. Look for his name in magazines like Outside, Men’s Journal, Ski Canada, online at Hakai and The Narwhal. When he’s not typing at his home office in Vancouver Island’s Comox Valley, you can find him skiing, hiking, mountain biking, surfing, paddling or fishing somewhere nearby.