scooter
04-28-2008, 01:14 PM
PUBLICATION: The Leader-Post (Regina)
DATE: 2008.03.12
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A2
DATELINE: SASKATOON
BYLINE: Betty Ann Adam
SOURCE: Saskatchewan News Network; Canwest News Service
WORD COUNT: 289
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Border disappears for Metis hunters
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SASKATOON -- Metis people who harvest game on their traditional lands won't be restricted by provincial boundaries since the Alberta government on Tuesday withdrew a charge against a Saskatchewan Metis man for hunting in a closed season, a Metis lawyer says.
Alfred Janvier, 68, shot a moose in March 2005 while on his way to visit his sister-in-law in the northern community of Chard, Alberta.
He claimed the Metis right to hunt for food in his family's traditional hunting area even though he lives in Saskatchewan.
The withdrawal of the charge is a significant victory for Metis traditional land users, lawyer Clem Chartier said Tuesday.
"This decision not to proceed confirms our long stated assertions that the artificially created provincial boundaries do not cut off or contain our harvesting rights over our traditional harvesting territories, which do in fact cross provincial boundaries," Chartier said.
Janvier had shot the moose about 13 kilometres into Alberta. He was traveling on the winter road from the northern community of La Loche when an Alberta conservation officer patrolling the area laid the charge.
The Crown presented its case in Fort McMurray court in January 2007. The defence was scheduled to present its case, claiming constitutional rights, in May 2008, Chartier said.
Chartier intended to provide evidence of kinship ties between the Metis of northwest Saskatchewan and northeast Alberta and about their historical and contemporary interactions and harvesting practices, he said in an interview Tuesday.
He also intended to bring expert witnesses to support Janvier's case.
The Crown withdrew the charge because they thought a conviction was unlikely, said Darcy Whiteside, a spokesperson for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.
Regardless of Tuesday's development, individual Metis land users must still meet the test set out in the 2003 Supreme Court decision in the Powley case, which ruled Metis people can claim aboriginal rights to hunt for food as long as they can show a direct link to a historic Metis community.
DATE: 2008.03.12
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A2
DATELINE: SASKATOON
BYLINE: Betty Ann Adam
SOURCE: Saskatchewan News Network; Canwest News Service
WORD COUNT: 289
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Border disappears for Metis hunters
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SASKATOON -- Metis people who harvest game on their traditional lands won't be restricted by provincial boundaries since the Alberta government on Tuesday withdrew a charge against a Saskatchewan Metis man for hunting in a closed season, a Metis lawyer says.
Alfred Janvier, 68, shot a moose in March 2005 while on his way to visit his sister-in-law in the northern community of Chard, Alberta.
He claimed the Metis right to hunt for food in his family's traditional hunting area even though he lives in Saskatchewan.
The withdrawal of the charge is a significant victory for Metis traditional land users, lawyer Clem Chartier said Tuesday.
"This decision not to proceed confirms our long stated assertions that the artificially created provincial boundaries do not cut off or contain our harvesting rights over our traditional harvesting territories, which do in fact cross provincial boundaries," Chartier said.
Janvier had shot the moose about 13 kilometres into Alberta. He was traveling on the winter road from the northern community of La Loche when an Alberta conservation officer patrolling the area laid the charge.
The Crown presented its case in Fort McMurray court in January 2007. The defence was scheduled to present its case, claiming constitutional rights, in May 2008, Chartier said.
Chartier intended to provide evidence of kinship ties between the Metis of northwest Saskatchewan and northeast Alberta and about their historical and contemporary interactions and harvesting practices, he said in an interview Tuesday.
He also intended to bring expert witnesses to support Janvier's case.
The Crown withdrew the charge because they thought a conviction was unlikely, said Darcy Whiteside, a spokesperson for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.
Regardless of Tuesday's development, individual Metis land users must still meet the test set out in the 2003 Supreme Court decision in the Powley case, which ruled Metis people can claim aboriginal rights to hunt for food as long as they can show a direct link to a historic Metis community.