First Nations people from across country are allowed to hunt in Sask. without licence, judge rules

FSIN calls decision a ‘vindication’ of treaty rights

A Saskatchewan provincial court judge has ruled any status First Nations person can hunt in the province. (CBC)

A Regina provincial court judge has ruled that all First Nations people in Canada are allowed to hunt in Saskatchewan without a licence.

Before the ruling, the province only allowed hunters from treaties within Saskatchewan (Treaties 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10) to hunt for food on Crown land in the province. Any member of a First Nation outside of that area needed to have a licence.

However, in the decision, Judge D. John Kovach said that the Saskatchewan Natural Resources Transfer Agreement (NRTA) allows any Canadian treaty Indian to hunt on unoccupied Crown land.

The case stems from an incident in October 2018, where two men from the Six Nations First Nation in Ontario were charged with unlawful hunting in Moose Mountain Provincial Park.

Crown attorneys argued that the transfer agreement, which transferred jurisdiction of federal Crown land to the province, only dealt with treaty Indians that had a prior existing treaty right to hunt in the province.

However, the judge said that prior court decisions from other provinces sided with a broader view of the legislation. Any ambiguity around treaty wording is often resolved in favour of the First Nations, he said.

The Crown argued Saskatchewan was trying to preserve game for its own native community, and an expansive view would have hindered that.

“There is no evidence, even now, that we have a problem with a large number of native hunters entering to hunt within the province,” wrote Kovach. “It seems to me that this just wasn’t a big problem and certainly wasn’t something that one would allow to stand in the way of the deal.” MORE