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On September 11, Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Central Committee
Canada partnered together to send the following joint letter of concern
to Prime Minister Jean Chretian. It was signed by Dave Dyck of MCC Canada
and Dan Nighswander of Mennonite Church Canada.
September 1, 2000
The Right Honourable Jean Chretien
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons Ottawa,
ON K1A 0A6
Dear Mr. Chretien:
It is with utmost urgency that Mennonite Church Canada, representing over 250
congregations, and Mennonite Central Committee Canada, the inter-Mennonite relief
and development agency, appeal to you for immediate action to defuse the violent
situation currently evolving in Esgenoopetitj/Burnt Church, New Brunswick.
As a peace church, a community of the Christian faith committed to biblical
understandings of non-violence and the example of Jesus Christ, our desire
for a non-violent resolution to this conflict is deeply rooted.
We are shocked by the television images of violent clashes on the waters
of Mirimachi Bay. We have also received information since the fall of
1999 from Christian Peacemaker Teams, a programme of Mennonite and other
faith groups, who are present in Burnt Church and report increasing use
of aggressive tactics by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. It is
clear from our experience worldwide that the use of force will not resolve
the kind of conflict underlying the present situation.
We recognize that the legal, economic and moral issues surrounding this
crisis are complex. The hopes and fears of all the people of the region
must be taken into consideration. At the same time, the government has
the power to reduce the potential for further injury or loss of life by
altering its course of action. We appeal to you for immediate action to
halt the aggression demonstrated toward Mi'kmaq fishers and their community
at Esgenoopetitj/Burnt Church by federal authorities. We encourage you
to redouble your efforts at negotiating an end to the immediate crisis.
From long and direct involvement with aboriginal communities we know that
similar conflicts over resources and land threaten to boil over in other
parts of this country. We urge you, therefore, to adopt and promote a
vision for an equitable sharing of resources between First Nations and
the larger Canadian society which will render such violent clashes obsolete.
We commend to you the government's own report of the Royal Commission
on Aboriginal Peoples released in 1996 as a source for the implementation
of such a vision.
Respectfully yours,
Dave Dyck,
Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee Canada
Dan Nighswander,
General Secretary, Mennonite Church Canada
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