N.S. news: Protesters allege Mi’kmaq elver fishers mistreatment [Video]

HALIFAX –

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday his government will investigate “extremely troubling” allegations that two Indigenous fishermen in Nova Scotia were dumped by federal fisheries officers hours from home without footwear or phones.

At an announcement in Halifax, Trudeau had to speak over a din as a group of about 25 protesters beat a traditional drum and chanted “honour treaty rights.”

Protester Hayley Ward said in an interview that two Mi’kmaq men in their 20s from Cape Breton were fishing last week for baby eels, known as elvers, when they were apprehended by fisheries officers. She said they were then dropped off at a remote gas station without their phones or boots and told, “You guys have to figure out a way to get home.”

“So (DFO) were doing starlight tours, essentially,” Ward said in reference to a practice where police have taken vulnerable Indigenous people to a secluded location …