Province’s Métis set stage for legal showdown over hunting rights
When Wayne Hadley shot a moose out of season near Cochrane this winter, he says he was making a stand for Métis rights — like his ancestors who fought alongside Louis Riel.
Hadley, whose great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather fought in the Riel Rebellion, shot the moose with a 30.30 rifle during one of six hunts staged by the Métis Nation of Alberta.
“I guess I owed it to them to keep on with the rebellion — at least until we win something,” said the 58-year-old Valleyview businessman.
Since the Métis began the hunts last fall near Pincher Creek, Cypress Hills, Hinton, House River, Cochrane and Suffield, six hunters have been charged and three deer, two moose and an antelope have been seized.
Métis Nation of Alberta president Audrey Poitras says the aim of the campaign, which has now been suspended, is to get the issue of Métis hunting before the courts and force the Alberta government to resume negotiations on a new Métis “harvesting agreement.”
She said she hopes a new government will move quickly after the March 3 election to avoid long and costly litigation.
“I am hoping that once the election is over the premier will see fit to sit down and look at why we don’t have an agreement in place.”
Métis say they are fighting for Constitutional rights upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Powley decision.
In that ruling, the court directed governments to accommodate Métis hunting and fishing for food in 2003, but Alberta Métis claim the province is limiting their rights with a narrow interpretation of the ruling.
Poitras says Alberta’s 66,000 Métis view the issue as a rallying point and are standing up to fight for rights the province is denying them.
“It is more than just about hunting,” she said. “It’s about the recognition of the rights of a people.”
Alberta was initially one of the first provinces to react to the court ruling, which was based on a case led by Ontario Métis moose hunters named Steve and Roddy Powley. The Ralph Klein Conservative government negotiated an interim agreement in 2004 enabling Métis to hunt anywhere in the province for food.
But the deal was scrapped by his successor Ed Stelmach in the wake of criticism from hunting and conservation groups and the failure of the Métis and government officials to reach a new deal before a 90-day deadline set by the province last year.
Métis are now restricted from hunting out of season, except around specific communities with historical and contemporary Métis links.
The new interpretation of the rules gives the province the authority to determine who is Métis. It essentially bans Métis from sustenance hunting or fishing anywhere in the southern half of the province.
“Our Constitution says we have the right to hunt for food and the province gave us our rights and we never abused them, but they took them away for no apparent reason,” Hadley said.
“Even though the government of Canada says we’re entitled to these rights, the government of Alberta refuses to recognize them.”
See HUNT / A2
David Ealey, a spokesman for Sustainable Resource Development, said the two sides are in “disagreement about what the rules are under Powley.”
“We’re quite willing as a government to carry forward with negotiations with the Metis organizations, but right now there has not been anything active,” he said. “At the moment there wouldn’t be anything occurring because we’re in an election.”
But Poitras contends there was no reason to scrap the initial agreement because claims some Metis were abusing the privilege were unfounded.
“It worked well for 2 1/2 years. What we should have been doing was building on it - not tossing it out.”
She puts the blame for the conflict on Sustainable Resource Minister Ted Morton, who campaigned during his bid for the Tory party leadership on a promise to scrap the deal if he won the contest.
Although Morton lost the leadership bid, Stelmach appointed him to a cabinet post that placed responsibility for the deal under his control, although his department maintains it was not his decision alone.
Robert Lee, manager of justice issues for the Metis Nation of Alberta, says the organization has hired Jean Teillet and Jason Madden, the lawyers who defended the Powleys, to represent hunters who have been charged.
Nathalie Kermoal, a native studies professor at the University of Alberta, says the court may take a dim view of the Alberta government’s arbitrary imposition of the new rules when a higher court made it clear there must be negotiations with Metis people.
“You have to negotiate with the people and come up with something they can agree on, but not impose things,” she said. “That’s the difference between the interim agreement, where there was consultation, and with what the Stelmach government has come up with.”
Kermoal says its also a matter of record that Metis hunted in southern and central Alberta although that position has been challenged by southern First Nations who claim it violates their treaties.
“When you look at Metis culture and how they lived in historical times, there was so much mobility among the people. They would move around many places for different reasons and a lot of it had to do with hunting.”
Hunting groups say they are primarily concerned that safety and conservation issues are addressed in a new deal.
Kelly Semple, executive director of Hunting For Tomorrow, said her coalition of hunting groups fears unregulated hunting will make it more difficult for the province to manage wildlife.
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