Trina Roache
APTN National News
A Mi’kmaw woman has won a sex discrimination case against the Millbrook First Nation in Nova Scotia.
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that the band denied Stacy Marshall Tabor fishing opportunities because she is a woman.
Tabor’s uncle is none other than Donald Marshall Junior, who won a landmark treaty rights case at the Supreme Court of Canada in 1999.
That victory gave the Mi’kmaq access to the commercial fisheries in the Atlantic.
But the battle was just beginning for Tabor who had been involved in the native fishery since she was 16 years old.
Tabor’s dream was to be captain of a fishing boat.
Yet over several years, she had to fight for money for training, put up with chauvinistic comments and lost job opportunities because of her sex.
“Ms. Tabor feels angry, hurt, frustrated, humiliated, degraded, embarrassed and, at times, depressed that her own First Nation would exclude her from its fishery,” writes tribunal member Sophie Marchildon.
The decision notes that more than once, Alex Cope, the Millbrook band manager, “made comments to the effect that the only place for women’s breasts on a boat was on the bow as a figurehead.” And that this, “coupled with her difficulty in getting funding for her captain’s training, the subtle scent of discrimination begins to permeate.”
Tabor did work at various times as a deckhand and First Mate, but was denied job opportunities and advancement with the Millbrook Fishery.
The tribunal found the band ignored or downplayed Tabor’s experience when hiring for the fisheries.
Tabor stayed home with her children from 2004 to 2006, not by choice, “but rather because she was ignored, laughed at and, ultimately, not able to get a job in the fishery.”
She got caught in a cycle in which, “this lack of experience is then held against her in the 2008 competition.”
That year, Tabor applied to be captain of a lobster boat.
The band had hired her husband to captain a boat for the lobster and snow crab fisheries in 2007, despite failed drug tests and a lack of qualifications.
At the end of the season, he had disputes with the Millbrook band and was not hired again.
Tabor argued that because she was married to him, the band held that against her and the job went to someone else.
The tribunal agreed.
Ms. Tabor feels angry, hurt, frustrated, humiliated, degraded, embarrassed and, at times, depressed that her own First Nation would exclude her from its fishery.” Sophie Marchildon, chair, Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
But it’s more than petty politics.
The tribunal found Tabor’s situation reflects a larger discriminatory attitude towards “the place of women in the community, namely that they should stay home with their kids.”
Around 2008, out of 40 to 65 band members employed in the fishery, only seven were women.
And they generally held low-level positions.
Last year, that number dropped to four.
Both parties have agreed to try and reach a settlement.
No one could be reached for comment.
