The Mi’kmaw fisher who waded into a war over treaty rights

Donald Marshall Junior just wants a quiet life: hanging out with his girlfriend and fishing for eels in rural Nova Scotia. And who can blame him? The Mi’gmaw man spent 11 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit. So when fisheries officers slap him with a ticket for selling eels without a licence, he’s dragged into a new fight. And this one’s for his people.

Host Falen Johnson unpacks R v Marshall: a case about whether a centuries old treaty means First Nations have the right to fish and sell their catch outside the quota system. Can Donald — who has already lost so much to the justice system — shoulder this high-stakes debate? And what happens when non-Indigenous fishers fear for their livelihoods, and a war on the water begins?