In 2004 the Supreme Court ruling was upheld the convictions of more than 50 non-native B.C. fishermen who took part in a protest fishery during a prohibited period. It was in 1998 that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans granted an exclusive communal fishing licence to the Musqueam, Burrard and Tsawwassen bands to fish for salmon in the mouth of the Fraser River for 24 hours in advance of the usual commercial season, and to sell their catch.
The court said that the agreement entered into with the Musqueam, Burrard and Tsawwassen bands expressly stated that it did not create any aboriginal rights. But in 2003 a B.C. provincial court stayed all the charges against the more than 50 commercial fishermen on the grounds that the special fishing licence granted to the three bands breached the charter rights of non-natives. Then after on year the B.C. Supreme Court overturned the decision and the protesters were convicted.
According to the judges despite the Supreme Court ruling, a real conflict over the issue has been identified because non-native fishermen were treated differently based on racial differences. As per the court ruling the right given by the Pilot Sales Programme is limited to aboriginals and has a detrimental effect on non-aboriginal commercial fishers who operate in the same region as the beneficiaries of the programme.
Phil Eidsvik, a spokesman for the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition, which spearheaded the Supreme Court challenge, said the judges got it wrong. He added that the aboriginal only fisheries opening is still a practice that is unfair to other Canadian citizens. He also told that the proper way to do this if they wanted to increase aboriginal participation would have been what they have been doing in recent years i.e. buy licences and vessels for aboriginal bands, issue them to aboriginal bands.
