MEADOW LAKE, Sask. – A debate over indigenous rights versus provincial law has brought at least 45 witnesses to a trial this week for three Metis hunters in Saskatchewan. The men from Meadow Lake are charged with hunting or fishing without a licence.
They were separately charged in 2012, 2013 and 2014 because they were harvesting animals and fish at least 30 kilometres away from their home community.
That has brought up the question on where Metis can exercise their hunting rights.
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Defence lawyer Kathy Hodgson-Smith argues that all Metis in the province belong to one traditional homeland.
She says that means they should be allowed to hunt without a licence anywhere in the province.
“We’re saying if you’re within the traditional homeland and territory of the Metis, the historical Metis community, that you should be able to exercise your right wherever you move – if your moved for employment, if you move to live with other family,” Hodgson-Smith said outside court this week.
Hodgson-Smith anticipates the Crown will argue that Metis hunting rights are site-specific.
The trial is to continue in June when historical experts are expected to take the stand.
There have been previous cases like this in Saskatchewan. A Meadow Lake man was found not to have violated provincial fishing regulations, because he was a member of the Northwest Saskatchewan Metis community.
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