HALIFAX -- Lobster is being taken off the menu at some Halifax-area restaurants.
Staff at Dear Friend Bar in Dartmouth, N.S., decided to stop offering lobster in September, citing incidents this fall in southwest Nova Scotia.
"We wanted to see if there was a way we could shine some more light on the issue but also directly support the Indigenous fisherman," said Matt Boyle, the bar and restaurant's co-owner.
Kourash Rad, owner of the Garden Food Bar and Lounge in Halifax, made a similar decision over the weekend.
"That’s when we looked at our menu and said the right thing to do is to take the lobster off the menu and show our solidarity to the Mi’Kmaq community," Rad said.
The Lobster Council of Canada was disappointed to learn lobster was leaving local menus.
"Especially right here at home, but we take the matter seriously and we're feeding that sort of information back into the process, to the federal government, to other participants in the negotiations, to hopefully make them realize this is a market issue and therefore we need as quick a solution as possible," Geoff Irvine said.
For Rad, the solution is straightforward.
"First and foremost, the violence needs to stop," Rad said. "I think that is the number one thing that needs to happen."
As for Boyle, he understands that he alone might not have an impact, but if others join in, the message gets stronger.
"As one small restaurant, it's hard to have a large voice, but as a community of restaurants, I think it helps the situation by doing something," Boyle said.
