July 31, 2024
TO: Premier Tim Houston of Nova Scotia, <premier@novascotia.ca>
Premier Blaine Higgs of New Brunswick <premier@gnb.ca>,
Premier Dennis King of PEI <premier@gov.pe.ca>,
CC: The Governor General of Canada <info@gg.ca>, Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations Gary Anandasangaree <gary.anand@parl.gc.ca>, <David.Coon@gnb.ca>, < Susan.Holt@gnb.ca>, <Wayne.Long@parl.gc.ca>, <david.hickey@saintjohn.ca>, <leader@nbndp.ca>, Zach Churchill <ca@zachchurchill.com>, Hal Perry <jhperrymla@assembly.pe.ca>, Claudia Chender <ClaudiaChenderMLA@gmail.com>
Pjila’si. We hope this letter finds you in good health. We are writing to you today on behalf of the Micmac Rights Association, an Indigenous Governing Body as per the Government of Canada’s definition in the Indigenous Services Act (“a council, government or other entity that is authorized to act on behalf of an Indigenous group, community or people that holds rights recognized and affirmed by Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”)
The Micmac Rights Association was created at a founding meeting in Millbrook First Nation on Oct 12, 2022. Since then we have grown to over 140 members belonging to 24 different Micmac communities across Mi’kma’ki. The Micmac communities our members are from include: Abegweit, Acadia, Annapolis Valley (Cambridge 32), Bear River, Eel River Bar, Elsipogtog, Eskasoni, Fort Folly, Glooscap, Gold River, Lennox Island, Listuguj, Millbrook, Natoaganeg (Eel Ground), Oromocto, Pabineau, Paq’tnkek, Pictou Landing, Potlotek (Chapel Island), Sipekne’katik (Indian Brook), St.Mary’s, Tobique, and We’koqma’q.
At our fourth biannual general meeting held on March 9th, 2024 in Millbrook First Nation, the Micmac Rights Association constituted itself as an Indigenous Governing Body so as to better advocate for our members rights. You can find out more about our association’s activities and political positions by visiting our website at www.micmacrights.com.
We are writing to you today because of the concern that Provincial agencies have been interfering in our member’s constitutionally protected Aboriginal and treaty rights. These actions by your provinces are in direct violation of our nation to nation agreements with the British Crown, and contrary to the division of Provincial and Federal powers in the BNA Act of 1867 which names the Federal government, and not the Provinces, as responsible for “Indians and lands reserved for Indians.” Provinces are an administrative sub-unit of the Canadian state and do not have the right or jurisdiction to interfere in matters between Canada and other nations, including the Micmac nation.
As you should be aware, you and other non-Indigenous people of your respective Provinces live in our lands because of the “Covenant Chain” of Peace and Friendship Treaties that were made between our ancestors and your Crown between 1725 and 1779. Although these lands brought the Micmac nation into alliance with the British Crown, these treaties were non-ceding of any of our lands and resources. As the traditional Grand Council of the Mi’kmaq Nationimouw put it in an 1980 document to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, “we never have sold or ceded by deed or by Treaty a single acre of our original domain.”
A number of our members who have been operating Treaty Truck Houses on our unceded lands in accordance with their constitutionally protected Section 25 and 35 Aboriginal and treaty rights, have had their rights violated by Provincial officials who have sought to intimidate them or steal their trade goods. This has occurred despite the terms of Article 4 of the Treaty of 1752 being very specific about the Micmac right to trade: “It is agreed that the said Tribe of Indians shall not be hindered from, but have free liberty of Hunting & Fishing as usual: and that if they shall think a Truckhouse needful at the River Chibenaccadie or any other place of their resort, they shall have the same built and proper Merchandize lodged therein, to be Exchanged for what the Indians shall have to dispose of, and that in the mean time the said Indians shall have free liberty to bring for Sale to Halifax or any other Settlement within this Province, Skins, feathers, fowl, fish or any other thing they shall have to sell, where they shall have liberty to dispose thereof to the best Advantage.”
We do not distinguish between our Micmac lands on or off reserve. Because the Crown never purchased our lands and we never ceded them to the Crown, all of Mi’kma’ki remains unceded “land reserved for Indians” as per the Royal Proclamation of 1763. We hold that as per our constitutionally protected Section 25 and 35 Aboriginal and treaty rights, Micmac people may freely trade on our traditional territory in accordance with our customs and conventions.
We look forward to resolving our many issues with the Federal government including the back rent we are owed on our lands and full compensation for the trees, fish, and minerals taken without our permission. We hope that when these negotiations take place, we will also be able to address any issues that the Crown may have with our trading posts. As such, we continue to honour the terms of our agreements with the Crown and wait for the Crown to make good on its promise to “Cherish a good Harmony & mutual Correspondence between the said Indians & this Government” by meeting on the “first day of October Yearly” to polish our Covenant Chain of Peace and Friendship as per the terms of Article 6 of our 1752 treaty.
As you may be aware, in the time since Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, hundreds of sovereign Indigenous cannabis trading posts have opened up across Turtle Island. These shops operate on unceded Indigenous lands in accordance with Indigenous customs and conventions regarding trade and medicine, and they are not regulated by Federal, Provincial, or the racist Indian Act Band Council systems. The Dispensing Freedom website lists over 540 such sovereign shops, and there are many more which have not yet made it onto the map. The existence of these shops is a reflection of the continuation of Aboriginal and treaty rights in the modern era, as individual Indigenous entrepreneurs have opened them to provide for their families. These businesses are a constitutionally protected and community supported part of the Indigenous economy. They are not going away, and they have played an exceedingly important role in contributing to the economic and social wellbeing of Indigenous people.
The same phenomena has played itself out in Mi’kma’ki where there currently exist over 100 such Indigenous trading posts. As an Indigenous Governing Body we have created a set of standards and rules in keeping with Micmac custom and convention by which we ensure the health and public safety of the products sold by the establishments operated by members of our Association. These shops, which are exercising their constitutionally protected Aboriginal and Treaty rights and which have agreed to follow our Indigenous Governing Body’s Community Standards on Cannabis are registered with us, and are therefore lawful and authorized under our jurisdiction.
We understand that there is a problem with non-Indigenous black market shops claiming to be exercising Indigenous rights. We are appalled by such insincere and fraudulent behaviour and we welcome the shutting down of such establishments which make a mockery of our rights. We are also more than willing to meet with your representatives in the spirit of peace and friendship to discuss any issues or concerns that you may have with any of our shops, or to discuss together how we may take action against fraudulent shops falsely claiming to be exercising Aboriginal and treaty rights.
Below, we list all the shops lawfully registered by the Micmac Rights Association to be exercising their Aboriginal and treaty rights in accordance with Micmac customs and conventions and Sections 25 and 35 of the Canadian Constitution.
List of lawfully authorized MRA truck houses in New Brunswick:
Chiefs of Cannabis – 103 Bd Broadway, Grand-Sault
L’nuk Lounge – 575 Main St, Moncton
The L’nuk Trading Post – 767 Coverdale Rd, Riverview
Giptu Trading Post – 81 Russel St., Saint John
Treaty Truck House – 98 Prince William St. Saint John, New Brunswick
Wolastoq Wellness – 899 Main St., Moncton, New Brunswick
Wolastoq Wellness – 147 Tobique Rd., Grand Falls, New Brunswick
List of lawfully authorized MRA truck houses in Nova Scotia
Aces Trading Post – 3 Agmogewawti, Membertou,
Amu Leaf – 14 Highfield Park Dr, Dartmouth
Bear Buds – 14 Noel St, Eskasoni
Belly Busters Pizza & Donair – 31 Tupsi Dr, Membertou,
Burning Tree Trading – 2772 Gottingen Street, Halifax
Burning Tree – 5511 Bloomfield St, Halifax
Cory’s Treaty Cannabis – 138 Robinson Rd, Yarmouth 33, Yarmouth
Grassroots Trading Post – 17 Minard Lane, Cambridge 32, Nova Scotia
Grassroots Trading Post – 784 Ratchford Rd., Cambridge 32, Nova Scotia
Grassroots Trading Post – 6128 Aylesford Rd. Aylesford, Nova Scotia
The Flower Barn – 975 Willow St, Truro
The Flower Barn – 661 Caldwell Rd, Dartmouth
High Grade Smoke Shop – 665 Caldwell Rd, Dartmouth
High Grade Smoke Shop – 171 Abenaki Rd, Truro
High Times Station – 531 Caldwell Rd, Dartmouth
Higher Tides – 53 Church Point Rd. Sheet Harbour
King of Weed – 241 Abenaki Rd, Truro
Kluskap Treaty Truckhouse – 45 Sweetgrass Road Glooscap Landing, Hantsport
Ku’ku’kwes Trading Post – 976 Central Ave. Kingston
Mi’kma’ki Truck House – 60 S Albion St. Amherst
Peace & Friendship Trading Post – 1407 Lucasville Rd. Hammonds Plains
Peace & Friendship Trading Post – 305 NS 303, Digby, Nova Scotia
Sacred Smoke – Kekme’k tlu’tow – 771 Bedford Highway Unit 9 Bedford
Smoking Bear – 1668 Barrington Street, Halifax
Sully’s Trading Post – 3 Lawrence Paul Sr Awti, Membertou
The Tradesman Trading Post and Smoke Shop – 826 Willow St. Truro
Treaty Nugz Truck House – 21 Beech Hill Rd., Gold River
List of lawfully authorized MRA Micmac truck houses in PEI
Mniku Trading Post – 56 Pkwiman Rd, Scotchfort
We thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
On behalf of the Micmac Rights Association,
Chris Googoo
Clinton Ray Howard
Garrett Gloade
Cody Caplin
Thomas Durfee