A First Nations family is speaking out after a weekend trip on the Fraser River took an ugly turn.
They claim they were harassed by a group of sport fishermen who anchored their charter boat close to where the family was fishing and shouted profanities and racial slurs, and exposed themselves.
Stacy McNeil said the routine fishing excursion in an area between Hope and Yale ended with her family feeling “shock” and “anger.”
“My cousin was absolutely flabbergasted and said, ‘Excuse me, there are children here. What are you doing?’ He then started yelling at her saying, ‘Why are you looking at it?'”
McNeil said her family asked the men to leave several times, but the abuse continued.
“They started to attack my cousin for her physical appearance. It turned into ‘dumb Indians’ and saying that we’re stealing all the fish.”
McNeil said her frightening experience only stopped when several other First Nations fishers came and persuaded the men to leave.
RCMP are now investigating.
McNeil’s Facebook post about the incident has received several messages of support, but she said she has also seen hateful comments.
“We all know that we share the river, we all know that the salmon are a valuable resource and that we all feed on that. But there are certain areas of the river that we feel are quite traditional to us and sacred and our families have been in certain spots for generations upon generations.”
— With files from Julia Foy