Ottawa moving to reissue fishing licences to Mi’kmaw group despite Inuit objections

OTTAWA — The federal government says it is proposing to reissue fishing licences to a coalition of Mi’kmaw First Nations in Atlantic Canada, despite objections from Inuit in Nunavut.

In 2021, Inuit sued the federal government over its decision to hand over a sizable portion of fishing licences off Nunavut’s coast to the First Nations coalition, after the coalition purchased half of Clearwater Foods earlier that year.

Inuit argued the government failed to consider provisions of the Nunavut Agreement, which says Ottawa should recognize that the communities closest to a resource are usually most likely to benefit from that resource.

A federal judge ruled last year that the government didn’t do that, struck down the decision to reissue the licences to the Mi’kmaw group, and ordered the gove