An apology and pardon for a Mi’kmaw rights activist

The province will be offering an apology and posthumous pardon to the first elected Mi’kmaq grand chief.

Gabriel Sylliboy, who became a passionate advocate for treaty rights after being convicted of illegal hunting, passed away in 1964.  He was convicted of hunting illegally in 1927 but took his fight to the provincial Supreme Court, claiming treaty rights as his defence. He lost…but decades later the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the Mi’kmaq people’s treaty rights.