Despite Powley, Metis hunting limited by MNR

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An angry Tony Belcourt, president of the Metis Nation of Ontario (MNO), called a press conference Oct. 7 to respond to an announcement made the previous day by Ontario Minister of Natural Resources David Ramsay.

Belcourt said the minister had broken a promise to the Metis people when he announced that an agreement to give Metis hunters the same rights as First Nation hunters was being limited to only the northern part of the province.

The MNO president said that was a direct violation of the "historic agreement on the recognition of Metis harvesting rights, made by . . . Ramsay with the Metis Nation of Ontario on July 7."

The agreement reached in July provided for a two-year interim period during which the MNR would recognize Metis harvesters carrying MNO harvester certificates who are in their traditional harvesting area throughout Ontario. Belcourt's organization agreed to issue no more than 1,250 harvesting certificates for the fall hunting season. In return, the MNR agreed to treat Metis people the same as First Nations people according to the province's interim enforcement policy. Months after the agreement was finalized Ramsay announced that only MNO harvesters north of Sudbury would be recognized.

"Minister Ramsay needs to be reminded of his own statement. When asked if any future government could ever break the historic deal, he said: 'Nobody is going to reverse that. You don't take back peoples' rights,'" Belcourt said.

When contacted by Windspeaker on Oct. 27, Belcourt was still angry. He said the same Ontario bureaucrats who fought so hard against the Powley case, in which the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against the Ontario and federal government in deciding that Metis people have Aboriginal rights, are now arbitrarily limiting the province's response to that court ruling.

"But the minister's not off the hook," he added. "He's ultimately responsible."

Belcourt said that the MNR fish and wildlife officers are working according to the terms of a previous protocol agreement dealing with Metis hunters where game and weapons are not seized if they're caught hunting without a provincial license and no charges are laid.

"But they could be charged. There's no guarantee it couldn't happen and that's the problem," he said. "And in light of the fact that we have an agreement, that would be completely unjust."

Belcourt noted that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty took credit on national television during the recently completed first ministers meetings on health for coming to an agreement with Metis hunters. But by later making a unilateral decision to limit the scope of the agreement, he said, the province has now broken the deal.

"Our people had a deal with the province that they could exercise their traditional right to hunt for food anywhere in any of their traditional territories, not just some," he said. "There is no plausible excuse for what they've done. This is simply a reflection of an entrenched prejudice within the MNR against Metis people."

The MNO president took issue with the timing of the announcement as well.

"So they make their announcement just before the Thanksgiving weekend and even if some of our people decided to get hunting tags so they could harvest a moose, they can't get tags because it's too late. All the tags have already been handed out. It's an underhanded tactic designed to keep our people from exercising their hunting rights."

So now, Metis people in Ontario who want to exercise the rights that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled they possess will have to return to court to fight the government's decision. Tony Belcourt has an ace up his sleeve in that battle. A recent landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling, known as the Okanagan Indian Band case, requires the Crown to pay for the legal costs of parties who are forced into expensive legal fights over constitutional matters by Crown decisions or actions.

"It was a very important Supreme Cot of Canada decision earlier this year that says that if the government doesn't believe the rights are there and they want to charge you, the government has to finance the court case," he said.

By breaking agreements and forcing more expensive court action, the bureaucrats are running up costs that Ontario taxpayers will have to pay. Belcourt believes the government officials are taking advantage of the fact that the public doesn't understand the complex issues involved in Aboriginal rights cases and the fact that hunting issues don't resonate with the media or the general public in the heavily populated urban areas of the province.

"They're taking advantage of the fact that the voters don't understand the issues or what they're doing. But sooner or later they're going to have think carefully about how they're using taxpayers' money and it's our money too," he said. "They're also taking advantage of the fact that people in the 905 area code around Toronto don't understand this and they know it's not a hot button issue with the Toronto Star."

Officials told Belcourt that they had to execute the government's response in "a legally defensible manner." He rejects that as a rationalization for maintaining the status quo by giving into the demands of the influential recreational hunting and fishing lobby.

"These are the guys who make the laws," he said. "They can do whatever it takes to make the agreement legally defensible. But they just want to continue excluding our people."

Belcourt said the bureaucrats have also said they have to limit the catch in order to make sure that First Nation hunters have enough to meet their needs.

"If that's the case, why did they issue 37,000 moose tags to recreational hunters, many of them from the United States?" he asked.

In British Columbia, the province's ministry of water, lands and air protection's Web site carries this notice to Metis hunters: "A reminder that all Metis individuals intending to hunt in theucoming season are required, under the Wildlife Act, to carry a valid hunting license and comply with all appropriate hunting regulations.

The Metis Provincial Council of British Columbia (MPCBC) director of natural resources, Dean Trumbley, said the B.C. government did not consult with the Metis council before posting this notice.

"MPCBC does not agree with this policy," he wrote in a letter addressed to all Metis citizens in the province.

The MPCBC is continuing talks with the province and is urging Metis people to comply with provincial regulations until something can be worked out that takes Powley into account.