Richard Martin will spend this year’s fishing season on land after saying 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 fishermen demonstrating outside the legislature on the morning of March 20, the day the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal government was expected to present its annual budget.
Martin doesn’t like horses (one kicked him when he was a child, he said in an interview Tuesday) and was moving to the edge of the crowd to escape. He said that’s when at least one officer shoved him without warning, before another grabbed him from behind and threw him to the ground.
“There was no indication that said, ‘Sir, you have to move, we are opening a passage for these public officials to get through,'” he said. “There was no indication from the police officers, there was no indication from anyone what was going to happen. It was something that came out of nowhere.”
At first, after crashing into the sidewalk, he thought he would have a bad bruise. “But after the pain started to set in, I could see that my leg was twisted and bent,” Martin said. “And I said, ‘Well, I’m sure I’ve done something serious there.'”
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 fishermen who had gathered in front of 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 favored seafood processing companies and made it difficult for fishermen to make a living.
Some had traveled to the protest from rural areas of the province, where fishing remains a major economic driver. Martin had made the seven-hour trip to the provincial capital from his home in Shoe Cove, N.L., although he said he was there primarily for an appointment in St. John’s.
The fishermen prevented government employees from entering the building and ultimately forced the government to postpone the budget presentation to the next 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. Officers mounted on two police horses backed their animals toward the fishermen in an effort to disperse the crowd. Some pickers fell to the ground and others were grabbed and dragged by mounted police.
An officer was also injured and had to be taken to the hospital, police said in a news release. The statement did not provide any information about what happened and the RNC did not respond to an email Tuesday requesting 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 was worried he would be trampled. But some of his fellow fishermen helped him get up and walk away from the place. They took him away in an ambulance.
Martin said his femur is broken in three places near his hip. He cannot put any weight on his left leg and it will be at least another three to five months before he fully recovers, he said. He won’t be able to catch anything 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.