Racial tension at heart of bitter dispute.

Tensions between Natives and non-Natives over the fishery here have become "scary," said John Asling, a United Church official on a Fisheries Listening Team.

"I don't think we are indulging in sensationalism," Asling said at a meeting in November in Wiarton, Ont. on the Bruce Peninsula to announce the team's findings.

The team was formed last summer after the Chippewas of Nawash Band Council asked the Mennonite Central Committee of Ontario to investigate a fishing dispute.

The dispute between Natives who fish commercially and non-Native sports anglers has grown in intensity over the last two years.

The fisheries team includes representatives of the Roman Catholic, Mennonite, United and Quaker churches as well as a lawyer from the Law Union of Ontario and two ecologists from the University of Toronto.

Members of the team have visited the area on several occasions during the last four years and their report was written after the team met with Native and non-Native groups in September.

The team reports that a decision made by Judge David Fairgrieve in 1992 recognizing Nawash's right to fish in traditional waters should have opened the door for better relations.

"Instead, three years later, the inter-racial tensions. . . have escalated," the report states.

Though no one has proved who is responsible, Native nets have been stolen or destroyed and a Native fishing tug was sunk and, after it was raised, was set afire.

There have also been incidents of violence against Natives, including the stabbing of a Native man in Owen Sound, Ont. last year.

The listening team has called on the province to initiate a public inquiry into the handling of the incidents by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ministry of Natural Resources.

"We have concerns, we'd like the questions asked," said Asling.

Nawash Chief Ralph Akiwenzie would also like the questions asked, but has little hope the province will respond to the team's request.

The province has failed to respond to public pressure to initiate an inquiry into the shooting death of Dudley George at Ipperwash in Sept. 1995, said Akiwenzie.

"In retrospect I think the listening team should have addressed this concern to the federal government. We're not getting anywhere with the province," said Akiwenzie.

The team did recommend that Nawash and the federal government be involved in "nation-to-nation" discussions regarding fish stocks and boundaries. No other group has a right to be at the table, team members said.

This recommendation and the claims of racism have upset area sports anglers who have consistently claimed their concerns are about conservation of the fish, not racism.

The report is one sided and is likely to make things worse, rather than better, said Blake Smith, who represents a coalition of area sports clubs.

He said the sports anglers' extensive fish stocking programs give them a right to be involved in any negotiations.

But Akiwenzie said the Nawash band is concerned the anglers' stocking program introduces foreign species to the lake.

The listening team shares Akiwenzie's concerns and recommends an investigation into the wisdom of stocking "exotic" fish.

The team also recommends communities, schools, churches and the MNR acknowledge racial tensions are at the heart of the fishing dispute and set up forums to foster better understanding.

Akiwenzie agrees but said there is a "tremendous job to be done changing attitudes, images and for non-Natives to understand we're here to stay, we can't go any other place."

Meanwhile negotiations with the province and the federal government over the fishery are at a stalemate, said Akiwnezie.

"We're getting no response," he said.