ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Richard Martin is spending this year's fishing season on land after he says a Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer broke his left leg in three places during a protest last month that shut down the provincial legislature.
The 52-year-old fisherman had just seen two officers on horseback approaching fish harvesters demonstrating outside the legislature on the morning of March 20, the day Newfoundland and Labrador's Liberal government was expected to deliver its annual budget.
Martin doesn't like horses — he was kicked by one as a child, he said in an interview Tuesday — and he was moving to edge of the crowd to get away. He said it was then that he was pushed without warning by at least one officer, before another grabbed him from behind and threw him to the ground.
"There was no indication to say, 'Sir, you got to move, we're making a right of way for these civil servants to get in through,'" he said. "There was no indication by police officers, there was no indication by nobody what was going to take place. It was just right out of the blue."
At first after smashing into the curb, he figured he would have a bad bruise. "But after the pain started setting in, I could see my leg was twisted and turned in," Martin said. "And I said, 'Well, I've got something seriously done there for sure.'"
He said the province's police oversight agency has since contacted him to say it is investigating the police actions that allegedly led to his injury. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said Tuesday it cannot comment on specific cases.
Martin was one of more than 100 harvesters who had gathered outside the Confederation Building to demand what they called "free enterprise" in the fisheries. Many in the crowd said the province's various fisheries were overregulated in a way that favoured seafood processing companies and made it hard for fishers to make a living.
Some had travelled to the protest from rural parts of the province, where the fisheries are still major economic drivers. Martin had made the seven-hour drive to the provincial capital from his home in Shoe Cove, N.L., though he said he was there primarily for an appointment in St. John's.
The fish harvesters blocked government employees from entering the building, and ultimately forced the government to postpone its budget presentation to the following day.
It was the police response that made the protest "unsafe," Martin said, referring to the word chosen by government officials to describe the protest. The officers atop the two police horses backed their animals into the fishers in an effort to disperse the crowd. Some harvesters fell to the ground, and others were grabbed and dragged away by the mounted police.
An officer was also injured, and had to be taken to hospital, the force said in a news release. The release did not provide any information about what happened, and the RNC did not respond to an email Tuesday asking for more details.
Martin said he was on the ground as the horses pushed into the nearby crowd. He said there was chaos around him, and he worried he'd get trampled. But a few of his fellow fishermen helped him get up and away from the scene. He was taken away in an ambulance.
Martin said his femur is broken in three places near his hip socket. He can't put any weight on his left leg and it will be at least another three to five months before he makes a full recovery, he said. He won't be able to fish at all this year, which he said will cost him tens of thousands of dollars.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2024.
The Canadian Press
