Problem
The year is 2029. Following several years of study following a 2023 report that suggested that overfishing was a serious threat to the sustainability of certain species in coastal Atlantic waters, the Federal Department of Fisheries has enacted a moratorium on the lobster fishery. License holders are prohibited from fishing for lobster for a minimum of three years, which should allow the species to repopulate. The regulation has been challenged both by licensed fishers, and by Indigenous peoples in Nova Scotia. The fishers say that the enactment is unconstitutional because it deprives them of their right to work in the province and of their livelihood. They say that the new law, while within the Federal government's right to legislate under the Division of Powers (Sea Coast and Inland Fisheries) is actually an infringement of the Province's power over property and civil rights. They also suggest that the law breaches their section 7 Charter rights to Life, Liberty, and Security of the Person.
The Indigenous communities say that the ban is a breach of their treaty rights to a Moderate Livelihood, guaranteed under Section 35 of the Constitution.
Assume there have been no Constitutional Amendments. Answer one section only.
a) Can the Nova Scotia licensed fishers successfully argue that the new law is unconstitutional under the division of powers? Why or why not?
b) Can the Nova Scotia licensed fishers successfully argue that the new law infringes their Section 7 Charter rights? Why or why not?
c) Can the Indigenous communities successfully argue that their treaty rights have been breached? Why or why not?