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Thread: Open season, all the time

  1. #1
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    Default Open season, all the time

    Saskatchewan

    Métis leader, hunter demand answers from province about inconsistent hunting rights

    Métis hunters are allowed to exercise hunting rights in parts of northern Sask., but not southern Sask.

    Bryan Eneas · CBC News · Posted: Sep 17, 2020 4:27 PM CT | Last Updated: September 17

    Clem Chartier, Métis National Council president and Métis Legal Research and Education Foundation chair, called Saskatchewan to address the difference in the way Métis hunters are treated in northern and southern parts of the province. (Bryan Eneas/CBC)
    Brendan Morin, a Métis man from northwestern Saskatchewan who now calls Regina home, was with his relatives — all status card carrying Indigenous people — when he was given a ticket for illegal hunting.

    Morin said he believed that as a Métis person he had every right to be hunting the lands near Kenosee, Sask., about 200 kilometres southeast of Regina, because he was hunting elk to feed his family.

    Instead he will have to go to court in December to fight roughly $4,000 in fines.

    Morin said that when he was handed his fines, conservation officers told him that if he chose to hunt in the north as opposed to the south, he wouldn't have had any issues.

    "It's not right and it needs to be corrected," Morin said on Thursday.

    Saskatchewan's rules around hunting are different for Métis people than for other Indigenous people, who are allowed to hunt on any unoccupied Crown lands.

    The Saskatchewan Treaty and Aboriginal Rights for Hunting and Fishing Guide said Métis people are allowed to exercise their rights to hunt within two specific areas in northern Saskatchewan.

    "In all other areas of the province, Métis Aboriginal rights are not currently recognized," the guide said.

    Brendan Morin says he was recently handed about $4,000 in fines for illegal hunting in Saskatchewan's southeast. (Bryan Eneas/CBC)
    Morin called on the province to change the rules and regulations in the spirit of reconciliation.

    "I'd just really like to see some clear set rules, some guidelines that everybody in the province needs to follow so that we can all cohabit and share," Morin said.

    "It needs to be sat down and negotiated. There has to be talks. There has to be agreements. The framework has to be there so that we can live together."

    Clem Chartier, the Métis National Council's president, also represents Métis hunters as a lawyer pro bono in rights disputes via the Métis Legal Research and Education Foundation.

    On Thursday, he too called on the province to change its rules around Métis hunting rights at a small gathering hosted on the legislature building's west lawn in Regina.

    "I'm not sure why this province doesn't recognize the rights of the Métis in southern Saskatchewan, which flies in the face of their own judicial system," Chartier said.

    He cited a 2007 provincial court decision involving Donald Joseph Belhumeur as a legal decision that applies to Métis hunters in Saskatchewan.

    Belhumeur, a Métis man, was charged for angling without a valid license in 2002 in contradiction of The Fisheries Act. A provincial court judge found Belhumeur, who argued he had a right to fish as a Métis person, not guilty.

    Chartier noted that in neighbouring Manitoba, the government was able to strike a harvesting agreement with Métis people that spanned the entirety of that province after one court case.

    "This government should respect [the Belhumeur] finding," Chartier said. "There's no magic to coming up with an agreement between the Métis government in this province and themselves."

    In a statement, the Ministry of Environment said it was in discussions with Métis leaders in Saskatchewan about hunting rights and would offer further comment on the matter later Thursday afternoon.

    The Ministry of Environment's response was directed through the Ministry of Justice, which said the government had recently started discussions with Métis Nation — Saskatchewan regarding harvesting rights in Saskatchewan.

    "These are issues that can and will be dealt with in a co-operative spirit in the negotiations with the Métis Nation–Saskatchewan, which we look forward to pursuing," the statement said.

    It said the government was not aware of any prosecutions of hunters or fishers asserting Métis rights in the Qu'Appelle valley area since the Belhumeur decision was issued in 2007.

    Chartier said if the Métis National Council were asked by the Métis Nation — Saskatchewan to lobby for change, the organization would do so.

    He said he wasn't sure where he would go next in terms of asking for the government to honour the judge's decision in the Belhumeur matter.

    "We're not sure what the remedy is. How do you enforce a provincial court decision?" Chartier asked.

    "I think it would be up to the judiciary themselves, one would think, or at least the attorney general, to ensure their court's decisions are upheld."

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...ghts-1.5728701

  2. #2
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    At least you won't have to worry about running into one of those moose whose population have exploded across the southern plains if they win...

  3. #3
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    Meanwhile, closer to Harv...

    Algonquins in Quebec enforce ban on moose sport hunting
    By Guest Author -September 18, 2020

    As members of the Algonquin Nation in Quebec enforce a ban on the sport hunting of moose on their ancestral lands, the situation got tense at one road block Thursday.

    As one pick up was granted permission to pass, the following vehicle struck one person.

    That person was fine after the incident.

    Jeff Dorn, a camera-editor with APTN News captured the moment on video and conducted several interviews after.

    “We gave a warning last year. Our moose population is down,” says one man at the roadblock to another sitting in a black pick up.

    “How many moose do you all kill in a year?” says the man in the pick up in French.

    “Whose land is it?” the Algonquin fires back.

    “It’s everybody’s land,” he says.

    After the exchange, an uneasy compromise is reached.

    The man is allowed to pass – but no hunters are allowed to go with him.

    “Your hunters can’t go, but you can go if you want,” he’s told.

    As the black pick up rolls by the road block – the following silver pick up doesn’t slow when one of the Algonquin supporters is on the road.

    “Gene, you alright,” he’s asked.

    “Yep.”


    The road block leading into a Quebec provincial part on the ancestral lands of the Algonquin Peoples. Photo by Jeff Dorn, APTN.
    No one was hurt in the confrontation.

    Gene Twenish, the man who was hit said he was expecting it.

    “Ah, just the way she was acting, I knew it.”

    People here say since the road blocks went up there have been many acts of intimidation.

    “We’re just trying to protest peacefully here, and we’re having to run into occurrences like this on a daily basis,” said Dylan Whiteduck, chief of Kitigan Zibi, an Algonquin community north of Ottawa.

    “This is unacceptable.”

    Algonquin Nations in the Outaouais, an area in western Quebec that covers about 30,000 square kilometres, are currently blocking three access points to their ancestral lands.

    Moose hunting season started this week and outfitters and sport hunters are not happy with the road blocks.

    “We saw some Indians in the Spring they killed a mother with a baby in it’s stomach, on the side of the road,” yelled a woman in French at the road block trying to get through.

    The Algonquins say they have no choice but to block access to their lands.

    They say when the closest grocery store is over an hour away, the decline in the moose population threatens their way of life.

    “A moose will feed five to six families, just one moose, for the whole year,” says Casey Ratt, chief of Algonquins of Barriere Lake.

    “Once the moose are gone, what is there to eat?”

    The province of Quebec agrees that there is a decline in the population.

    But not severe enough to warrant a total moratorium on sport hunting.

    According to the province, 30 per cent fewer permits were issued this year and a 1,200 square kilometre area has been declared a non-sport hunting zone.

    A conservation committee was also struck to manage the moose population.

    “Quebec has their own agenda and we’re not part of it,” says Charles Ratt, a councillor in Barriere Lake. “But in reality, they have no choice.

    “We’re not going no where.”

    https://nit.com.au/algonquins-in-que...sport-hunting/

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