A clearer definition is needed, say Metis

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Catching fish with a rod and reel is sports fishing. It does not fall within the definition set out by government when it considers Metis people and their right to subsistence fish.

The Metis Nation of Alberta (MNA) is challenging this definition. It will put to the test a case against Morris Trudell, charged with fishing with a rod and reel outside of sport fishing season.

Metis National Council President Clem Chartier will represent Trudell. Chartier worked on the Powley case that went to the Supreme Court of Canada and first recognized the Metis right to hunt for food.

In July, Chartier was victorious in the Laviolette case, a landmark fishing rights case in Saskatchewan. Laviolette had been charged with fishing out of season, and the victory for the Metis was the first harvesting rights win in Saskatchewan.

Chartier said Trudell was charged in the summer of 2004 in the Bragg Creek area of Alberta. The charge against Trudell came prior to the implementation of the interim Metis harvesting agreement in October 2004.

The agreements reached by the province with the MNA and the Metis Settlements Council gives their members the right to subsistence hunt and fish on Crown land in Alberta.

While the charge predates the agreements, it does not discount the fact that Trudell still had a right to subsistence fish as recognized in Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982, said Chartier.

Chartier finds it incredible that the province considers harvesting with a net subsistence fishing while it equates Metis fishing with a line and hook or with a rod and reel as sport or recreational fishing.

It is the equivalent of saying that you can only hunt with a bow and arrow instead of a high-power rifle, said Chartier.

"I can not see in the end how that can be sustainable because the Supreme Court of Canada has made it quite clear that Aboriginal people who have harvesting rights can do so by modern means."

The problem surrounding harvesting with a net is that there is no control over how many fish, or what type of fish is taken, said Chartier.

"It makes more sense for a Metis to use a line and a hook in that you know the limit you are going to get. If you need one fish then you'll get one fish and you don't need to fish again until it is required for your table," said Chartier.

MNA President Audrey Poitras said the Trudell case has to be fought because a clearer definition of harvesting is needed.

"Within our interim harvesting agreement there is a table where [the MNA and the province] can come together as the two signatories on the agreement to discuss these items. We haven't gotten there yet, but, and in the meantime, we have the Trudell case, which we needed to do something on. And we have gotten behind it and supported him," said Poitras.

"We totally agree that our agreement does not cover sport fishing, but we believe that as Metis people if we fish with a rod and reel for food, that is not sport fishing."