Canada's first Inuit lawyer and former boxer takes on the government of Canada.

Synopsis

"...a powerful documentary.... beautifully made and angry, it is a startling and cogent story" - The Globe & Mail Zacharias Kunuk, the award-winning director of Atanarjuat The Fast Runner (Camera d'or,Cannes 2001), travels to Edmonton to meet Kiviaq, Canada's first Inuit lawyer, who was also a former Golden Gloves boxing champion, a City Alderman, and the only Inuk ever to play on the Edmonton Eskimos CFL football team. Kiviaq's extraordinary life story bears testimony to the treatment indigenous people of the Canadian Arctic have endured for generations due to the government's inhumane colonial policies.

Follows the Bear River First Nation as they stand up to pressure from the Department of Fisheries (DFO) to sell their treaty rights.

Synopsis

In Defense of our Treaties, follows the struggle of Bear River First Nation as they stand up to pressure from the Department of Fisheries (DFO) to sell their treaty rights for a ticket into the commercial fisheries. For the Mi’kmaq, fishing is a right that comes from the Creator, and is protected by the Treaties. In 1999, the Supreme Court recognized those rights, and DFO has signed agreements with 32 of the 34 First Nations in the region. The deals offer money to buy into the commercial fisheries, as long as the Mi’kmaq fish under DFO’s jurisdiction. That's not good enough for Bear River, one of two communities refusing to sign.