Officer receives suspension after two Mi'kmaq elver fishers left without boots

In this April 16, 2020 photo, eel fishermen use dip nets while fishing by lantern light in Yarmouth, Maine. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Robert F. Bukaty

HALIFAX -

A veteran federal fisheries officer has been suspended for 10 days without pay for his role in arresting two Mi'kmaq elver fishers late at night and releasing them in only their stocking feet.

Kevin Hartling and Blaise Sylliboy, both in their 20s, were arrested on March 26 as they fished for baby eels near Shelburne, N.S. They said three fisheries officers confiscated their phones and hip waders before leaving them at a gas station about a 45-minute drive from where they had been fishing.

Hartling has said that after the two men were asked to leave the gas station, they walked in the cold without boots along a highway in southern Nova Scotia for hours before they were able to borrow a cellphone to reach a friend, who came and picked them up.

After the incident became public in April, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it "extremely troubling" and promised a complete investigation.

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The Canadian Press verified the penalty imposed on the veteran officer but was unable to confirm what sanctions were imposed on the two more junior fishery officers.

The supervisory officer's release of the men without footwear is described in the administrative investigation as a breach of the department's code of values and ethics.

It was also considered a failure to "assume responsibility for care and control" of people under arrest, as detailed in the department's standard operating procedures. The discipline imposed considered the officer had no prior disciplinary breaches and "demonstrated remorse."

The time without pay began on Wednesday and was to continue until the end of Christmas Day.

Hartling, who spoke to The Canadian Press on Wednesday by text message, said he finds the penalty insufficient.

"It seems like a pretty light penalty in my personal opinion. He should also have to do a behavioural course, so he isn't doing this to more people," he wrote. "I would rather have had them take me to jail or at least cut our (hip) waders so we could have had something left on our feet."

However, a source who didn't want to be identified due to potential employment repercussions reported that many federal Fisheries Department enforcement officers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick booked off on mental health leave Wednesday to protest the penalties imposed.

The source said many officers believe the supervisor followed arrest procedures in taking the men to a location of their choice -- a gas station -- and dropping them off.

It is normal procedure for DFO officers to seize hip waders and cellphones when making arrests in suspected illegal fishing, and the officers do not bring people they arrest to jail in these circumstances, the source said. The source said the officers made some efforts to retrieve Sylliboy's and Hartlings' boots before they departed the scene of the arrest.

"The expectation to drive somebody home when they live eight hours away (in Cape Breton) is not a realistic expectation. How do we go and buy or purchase these guys boots late at night? What options do the officers have to try to accommodate them?" asked the source.

The Union of Health and Environment Workers, which represents the officers, declined comment Wednesday on the sanctions and on the officers' protest.

Federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier also declined comment, saying the finding is a human relations matter, and a spokeswoman for the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs said they had no comment on an "internal DFO matter."

Lebouthillier announced in July she had ordered an external review into the matter that would look at "procedures to eradicate the potential for systemic biases or racism." A spokesman said on Wednesday that the review hasn't started yet.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.