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The Supreme Court of Canada says an American Indigenous man has a constitutionally protected right to hunt in British Columbia given his people’s historic ties to the region.
The decision today comes in the case of Richard Lee Desautel, a U.S. citizen who was charged with hunting without a licence after shooting an elk near Castlegar, B.C.
Desautel defended his actions on the basis he had an Aboriginal right to hunt protected by section 35(1) of Canada’s Constitution Act.
Desautel is a member of the Lakes Tribe of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington state, a successor of the Sinixt people, whose ancestral territory extended into B.C.
The trial judge found the sections of B.C.’s Wildlife Act under which Desautel was charged had infringed his constitutional right to hunt in the province.
The decision was upheld by the B.C. Supreme Court and the province’s Court of Appeal, prompting the Crown to take its case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says the 2021 federal budget marks a historic level of investment in Indigenous communities, but he acknowledges much of this spending addresses systemic funding gaps and that longer-term, sustained spending will need to continue.
The Liberal government plans to spend more than $18 billion over the next five years to narrow the socio-economic gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and to help these communities fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additional amounts have also been earmarked in other departments that will go toward helping Indigenous communities, including $2.5 billion over five years for distinctions-based early learning and child care and $108.6 million over five years for First Nations policing.

Ontario is reporting its first case of a rare blood clot in a person who received the Oxford-AstraZenenca COVID-19 vaccine.
The province’s top doctor says the patient is a man in his 60s who had received his first dose.
Dr. David Williams says the man has been treated and is recovering at home.
Ontario says it’s the fourth case of the rare clotting condition in Canada out of more than 1.1 million AstraZeneca doses administered across the country.
The province says it’s monitoring the situation.
It will continue offering the vaccine to people aged 40 and older.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford issued an emotional apology on Thursday for introducing COVID-19 restrictions that sparked furious backlash as he confirmed his government would bring in paid sick-leave for workers after months of refusing to do so.
Ford said he was sorry for increasing police enforcement powers and closing playgrounds last Friday — measures that were rolled back amid an onslaught of criticism — and said his government got it wrong.
He deflected criticism that the impact of the third wave could have been lessened with stronger policy responses, saying he could have done more with greater vaccine supply.
The premier confirmed that his government was working on a sick-leave program to support workers, although he did not provide a timeline or any further specifics.