Two Manitoba men recently pleaded guilty to unlawful hunting charges from a hunt on Canora land.
In December 2015, according to a release from the Ministry of Environment, conservation officers in Duck Mountain Provincial Park received a call regarding three moose that were shot on posted land in the Canora area. The landowner observed three moose being loaded into two trucks on his land. The land had been posted as off-limits to hunters.
A Manitoba license plate number was relayed to the officers, who gathered evidence and had conservation officers in Manitoba speak to the registered owner of the vehicle to obtain the names of the men involved in the incident, according to the release.
Saskatchewan conservation officers, a Manitoba conservation officer and the RCMP searched two residences on Pine Creek First Nation in Manitoba, and DNA from the kill site and searches were tested to find a positive match. Spent shell casings collected at the scene were determined to be fired from the firearms at each residence.
According to a report from Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), the two were exercising treaty rights to hunt on the land, but in Saskatchewan, individuals exercising treaty rights must still ask permission to hunt on land.
In Yorkton provincial court, the residents, 55-year-old Charlie Boucher and 40-year-old Georgie Lamirande, pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful hunting on posted land, unlawful possession of wildlife and illegal transport of wildlife to another province. They were each fined $7,500.
