Aboriginals can't wait for Ottawa Marshall

First Nations people should create their own commercial fishery, says Donald Marshall, rather than waiting for Ottawa to make room for aboriginal people.

Marshall's name has become synonymous with Native fishing rights after a Supreme Court decision threw out his conviction of fishing illegally and said that treaties dating back to the 18th century allowed aboriginals to fish outside of current regulations.

More than a year later, the debate over the native fishery rages on.

Marshall spoke Tuesday night to native leaders at a national fisheries conference in Halifax.

"These are very exciting times for us," he said. "We should build our own fish processing plants, our own marketing boards, our own trade unions."

The conference is a gathering of aboriginals from across the country. They want to create a strategy that would see Ottawa make room for them in the commercial fishery.

Last summer, Mi'kmaq fishermen from Burnt Church, N.B. clashed repeatedly with fisheries officials on Miramichi Bay. Aboriginals insisted the Marshall decision affirmed their right to fish when and how they want.

But the federal government insists it retains the right to regulate all fisheries, and refused to allow them to fish at will.