A former federal fisheries officer has been suspended for 10 days without pay for arresting two Mi’kmaq glass eel fishermen late at night and releasing them with only their socks on.
Kevin Hartling and Blaise Sylliboy, both in their 20s, were arrested on March 26 while fishing for baby eels near Shelburne, Nova Scotia. They said three fisheries officers confiscated their phones and waders before leaving them at a gas station about 45 minutes’ drive away. where they fished from.
Hartling said after asking the two men to leave the gas station, they walked in the cold without boots along a southern Nova Scotia highway for hours before they were able to borrow a cell phone to contact a friend, who came to pick them up. up.
After the incident became public in April, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it “extremely disturbing” and promised a full investigation.
The Canadian Press verified the sanction imposed on the veteran officer, but was unable to confirm what sanctions were imposed on the two most junior fisheries officers.
The release of the shoeless men by the surveillance officer is described in the administrative investigation as a violation of the ministry’s code of values and ethics.
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It was also considered a failure “to assume responsibility for the care and control” of those arrested, as detailed in the department’s standard operating procedures. The discipline imposed considered that the agent had no previous disciplinary violations and that he had “shown remorse”.
The time without pay began Wednesday and was scheduled to continue until the end of Christmas Day.
Hartling, who spoke via text message with The Canadian Press on Wednesday, said he found the sanction insufficient.
“That seems like a pretty light penalty in my personal opinion. He should also take a behavior course, so he doesn’t do this to more people,” he wrote. “I would have preferred that they take me to prison or at least cut off our waders so that we would have something left on our feet.”
However, a source who did not want to be identified due to potential employment impacts reported that many federal Fisheries Department enforcement officers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have taken leave for mental health reasons on Wednesday to protest the sanctions imposed.
The source said many officers believed the supervisor followed arrest procedures by taking the men to their location of choice — a gas station — and dropping them off.
It is normal for DFO officers to seize waders and cell phones when making arrests in connection with suspected illegal fishing, and officers do not take people they arrest to jail in these circumstances, a indicated the source. The source said the officers made efforts to recover Sylliboy and Hartlings’ boots before leaving the scene of the arrest.
“Expecting to drive someone home when they live eight hours away (in Cape Breton) is not a realistic expectation. How can we go shopping or buy these boots for guys late at night? What options do agents have to try to accommodate them? » asked the source.
The Health and Environmental Workers Union, which represents the officers, declined Wednesday to comment on the sanctions and the officers’ protest.
Federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier also declined to comment, saying the discovery was a human relations issue, and a spokeswoman for the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs said she had no comment on an “internal DFO matter”.
Lebouthillier announced in July that she had ordered an external review of the case that would examine “procedures aimed at eradicating the potential for systemic bias or racism.” A spokesperson said Wednesday that the review had not yet begun.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.
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