WOOKIE
06-27-2005, 10:36 AM
Special committee formed to hear angry hunters and insistent aboriginals
JAMES BAXTER Legislature Bureau Chief
With files from Jason Markusoff and Larissa Liepins
EDMONTON
The Klein government has struck a special caucus committee to deal with deep divisions arising from giving Métis special hunting and fishing rights.
Conservative party whip Denis Ducharme will chair the three-person committee. He said the committee hopes to ease tensions that developed after the government and the Métis Nation of Alberta reached an interim agreement last year recognizing their rights to hunt and fish on Crown-owned lands.
The agreement has deeply divided the Tory caucus, as many MLAs have come under intense political pressure from angry hunters and anglers.
“I guess after all of the e-mails and the onslaught of a lot of rhetoric from outdoors people, they decided (consulting the public) might be a good idea,” said Randy Collins, president of the Alberta Fish and Game Association. The group is pressing the government to tear up the agreement with the Metis and, if necessary, use the notwithstanding clause to ignore a Supreme Court of Canada decision that opened the way for Metis hunting on government lands.
But an expert in aboriginal law said the notwithstanding clause only applies to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Aboriginal rights are enshrined in the constitution, but are not part of the Charter.
“I don’t see how (the clause) would apply at all,”University of Alberta law professor Val Napoleon said.
At the heart of the controversy is a 2003 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that Metis people have the same right as status Indians to hunt for food on Crown land during the off-season and without licences. Steve Powley and his son Roddy, from a Metis community in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., were charged with hunting without a licence after they shot a moose in 1993.
After more than a decade of legal battles, the court ruled Metis people with links to historical Metis communities and traditions share the aboriginal right to hunt for food along with First Nations people.
The province and the Metis Nation of Alberta followed that up last year with an interim agreement that remains in force, which recognizes aboriginal hunting and fishing rights for Metis. It allows Metis hunting and fishing rights as long as they could show they needed to hunt to survive. They need approval from officials with the Metis settlement where they live or from the Metis Nation of Alberta.
“It’s more than about pride in our nation,”said Audrey Poitras, president of the Metis Nation of Alberta. “There’s a stringent process involved in recognizing someone as Metis.”
Ducharme will be joined by Calgary MLA Neil Brown and Frank Oberle, MLA for Peace River, on the committee. He said many MLAs have received a barrage of mail and phone calls expressing concern over the deal. It was also a frequent issue raised by opposition MLAs in the legislature this spring.
Ducharme said many of the complaints assert that the government gave away more than was required under the high court decision.
The Alberta Fish and Game Association has been lobbying for the government to break the agreement because they view it as too broad and open to abuse. Among the greatest weaknesses, it contends, is there are no rules barring Metis from other parts of Canada from coming to Alberta and claiming hunting rights, he added.
In the Powley case, however, the Supreme court ruled Metis must show they have a connection to the land they want to hunt on.
Collins also expressed anger that the deal with the Metis was negotiated in secret and that hunting-and-fishing groups, and conservationists, were never consulted.
“When it came to the interim agreement, we were taken aback because there was no consultation,” he said. “Basically, we took it upon ourselves to force the debate.”
Collins said his organizations wrote and circulated a position paper to its members and to government, and encouraged its members to write to elected MLAs.
“Most of the concerns were raised by the Alberta Fish and Game Association,” Ducharme confirmed. He said the committee will meet with the association in July, as well as with Metis groups and other interested stakeholders. “There’s lots of misinformation being passed around out there and among MLAs.
“Our mandate is to collect and filter information. We hope, at the end of the day, to be in a position to provide recommendations (on government policy) to assist MLAs to deal with concerned constituents.”
Ducharme admitted there is tension over the issue, but denied there is a clear urban-rural split. Other insiders say the caucus is deeply split, largely along north-south lines. Southern MLAs, led by Calgary’s Ted Morton, are advocating ignoring the court decision, while northern MLAs, where most Metis reside, support making the interim agreement permanent.
Morton, an avid hunter and angler himself, has been among the caucus’ most vocal critics of the agreement. He cautions that bighorn sheep, grizzlies and some already-depleted fish stocks are being threatened further by Metis’ virtually unfettered access to them.
“There’s a number of us, obviously including myself, who think the impact will be significant,” Morton said.
He also contends that Alberta’s agreement is far broader than those in other provinces.
jbaxter@thejournal.canwest.com
JAMES BAXTER Legislature Bureau Chief
With files from Jason Markusoff and Larissa Liepins
EDMONTON
The Klein government has struck a special caucus committee to deal with deep divisions arising from giving Métis special hunting and fishing rights.
Conservative party whip Denis Ducharme will chair the three-person committee. He said the committee hopes to ease tensions that developed after the government and the Métis Nation of Alberta reached an interim agreement last year recognizing their rights to hunt and fish on Crown-owned lands.
The agreement has deeply divided the Tory caucus, as many MLAs have come under intense political pressure from angry hunters and anglers.
“I guess after all of the e-mails and the onslaught of a lot of rhetoric from outdoors people, they decided (consulting the public) might be a good idea,” said Randy Collins, president of the Alberta Fish and Game Association. The group is pressing the government to tear up the agreement with the Metis and, if necessary, use the notwithstanding clause to ignore a Supreme Court of Canada decision that opened the way for Metis hunting on government lands.
But an expert in aboriginal law said the notwithstanding clause only applies to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Aboriginal rights are enshrined in the constitution, but are not part of the Charter.
“I don’t see how (the clause) would apply at all,”University of Alberta law professor Val Napoleon said.
At the heart of the controversy is a 2003 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that Metis people have the same right as status Indians to hunt for food on Crown land during the off-season and without licences. Steve Powley and his son Roddy, from a Metis community in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., were charged with hunting without a licence after they shot a moose in 1993.
After more than a decade of legal battles, the court ruled Metis people with links to historical Metis communities and traditions share the aboriginal right to hunt for food along with First Nations people.
The province and the Metis Nation of Alberta followed that up last year with an interim agreement that remains in force, which recognizes aboriginal hunting and fishing rights for Metis. It allows Metis hunting and fishing rights as long as they could show they needed to hunt to survive. They need approval from officials with the Metis settlement where they live or from the Metis Nation of Alberta.
“It’s more than about pride in our nation,”said Audrey Poitras, president of the Metis Nation of Alberta. “There’s a stringent process involved in recognizing someone as Metis.”
Ducharme will be joined by Calgary MLA Neil Brown and Frank Oberle, MLA for Peace River, on the committee. He said many MLAs have received a barrage of mail and phone calls expressing concern over the deal. It was also a frequent issue raised by opposition MLAs in the legislature this spring.
Ducharme said many of the complaints assert that the government gave away more than was required under the high court decision.
The Alberta Fish and Game Association has been lobbying for the government to break the agreement because they view it as too broad and open to abuse. Among the greatest weaknesses, it contends, is there are no rules barring Metis from other parts of Canada from coming to Alberta and claiming hunting rights, he added.
In the Powley case, however, the Supreme court ruled Metis must show they have a connection to the land they want to hunt on.
Collins also expressed anger that the deal with the Metis was negotiated in secret and that hunting-and-fishing groups, and conservationists, were never consulted.
“When it came to the interim agreement, we were taken aback because there was no consultation,” he said. “Basically, we took it upon ourselves to force the debate.”
Collins said his organizations wrote and circulated a position paper to its members and to government, and encouraged its members to write to elected MLAs.
“Most of the concerns were raised by the Alberta Fish and Game Association,” Ducharme confirmed. He said the committee will meet with the association in July, as well as with Metis groups and other interested stakeholders. “There’s lots of misinformation being passed around out there and among MLAs.
“Our mandate is to collect and filter information. We hope, at the end of the day, to be in a position to provide recommendations (on government policy) to assist MLAs to deal with concerned constituents.”
Ducharme admitted there is tension over the issue, but denied there is a clear urban-rural split. Other insiders say the caucus is deeply split, largely along north-south lines. Southern MLAs, led by Calgary’s Ted Morton, are advocating ignoring the court decision, while northern MLAs, where most Metis reside, support making the interim agreement permanent.
Morton, an avid hunter and angler himself, has been among the caucus’ most vocal critics of the agreement. He cautions that bighorn sheep, grizzlies and some already-depleted fish stocks are being threatened further by Metis’ virtually unfettered access to them.
“There’s a number of us, obviously including myself, who think the impact will be significant,” Morton said.
He also contends that Alberta’s agreement is far broader than those in other provinces.
jbaxter@thejournal.canwest.com