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Alberta Court of Appeal upholds restrictions on Métis hunting rights

Article Origin

Author

Sweetgrass Staff

Volume

20

Issue

8

Year

2013

Via Canadian Press

The Alberta Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that restricts where Métis people can hunt in the province of Alberta.

Garry Hirsekorn was convicted in 2010 of hunting out of season after he shot a mule deer in 2007 near the Cypress Hills area in southeast Alberta.

Hirsekorn's lawyers had argued that he was exercising his Aboriginal rights as a Métis. The province only recognizes those rights around several northern Alberta Métis settlements.

The court denied Hirsekorn's appeal Thursday. It ruled that his lawyers failed to prove that Métis had a significant long-standing historic presence in the area before the North West Mounted Police began patrolling the region during the 1870s.

"At that point in Métis history, the Cypress Hills were not part of the traditional territory of the historic community, however defined," Justice Marina Paperny wrote in the judgment.

Paperny said the case did not meet the test for Métis hunting rights set out in the Supreme Court of Canada's Powley ruling. The 2003 decision granted hunting rights to Métis who live in settled communities that were established before they came under the effective control of European laws and customs.

The Supreme Court's Powley ruling involved two Métis men, Steve and Roddy Powley, who shot a moose in 1993 and were charged with breaking Ontario hunting law. The men argued the Constitution protects the right of Métis to hunt for food.

The Supreme Court ruled in their favour, saying that people in their Métis community in and around Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., have the Aboriginal right under the Constitution to hunt for food.