On Sept. 17, 1999, Donald Marshall Junior won a landmark Supreme Court ruling that allowed First Nations people to fish for what the court called “a moderate livelihood.”
Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of what has come to be known as the Marshall Decision, and many – including his family – remembered its impact then and now.
“For him, it took such a toll to have to go through the court process – to be in the public eye,” said Colleen D’Orsay, Donald Marshall Junior’s widow. Marshall Junior died in 2009 from complications following a lung transplant six years earlier.
D’Orsay said while her late husband’s fight has largely been worth it, there have been several instances in of fighting on Maritime waters between Mi’kmaq and non-Native fishers in the last 25 years.
She says she and their son, Donald Marshall III, were in Saulnierville, N.S., four years ago during the …