Metis win Saskatchewan harvesting rights case

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The Metis Nation has won another landmark hunting and fishing rights case, this time in Saskatchewan.

On July 15, provincial court Judge Earl Kalenith ruled that Ron Laviolette, a Metis man from the Meadow Lake area, has a right to fish for food.

The ruling is the first in Saskatchewan to recognize the Metis right to subsistence harvesting under Sec. 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982. Metis harvesting rights were first recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v Powley in 2003. The ruling in the Laviolette case also follows a similar decision made by a provincial court in British Columbia, a case which is becoming known as the Willison decision.

"It is a message that governments ... must come to terms with respecting Metis rights," said David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation. "How many more cases do we need to win?"

"It is hoped that, as a result of this new ruling, Saskatchewan Environment, which is responsible for the current flawed and unconstitutional policy vis-a-vis Metis harvesting, will re-examine its limited interpretations and begin to work with the Metis Nation-Saskatchewan in order to respect this decision and the harvesting rights of all Metis people in the province,"Clement Chartier, president of the Metis National Council and lead counsel for Laviolette, said in a press release.

Laviolette was charged with fishing without a license on Green Lake during a closed season. He was fishing with two treaty Indians from Flying Dust First Nation. Also fishing close by were a treaty Indian from Prince Albert and another Metis person from Green Lake, but only Laviolette was charged.

The government of Saskatchewan has a policy that Metis people must meet four criteria in order to exercise harvesting rights-they must self-identify as Metis, they must live in the Northern Administration District, they must have a long-standing connection to the Metis community, and they must live a traditional lifestyle. The government argued that Laviolette did not meet these criteria.

Laviolette lives in Meadow Lake, which is not recognized as a Metis community and is not in the Northern Administration District. Green Lake, however, located about 55 km away from Meadow Lake, is a Metis community and it is in the Northern Administration District.

During the trial the Crown argued that a Metis community should be defined as a fixed settlement. Judge Kalenith did not agree with this argument and found that community could involve a larger regional concept. He agreed with the Powley decision that a Metis community is defined as a group of Metis with a distinctive collective identity, living together in the same geographic area and sharing a common way of life.

Laviolette was born in northwest Saskatchewan but he grew up in Kikino Metis Settlement in Alberta and lived in other locations depending on the work he was able to get.

The judge ruled that although Laviolette had not continually resided in northwestern Saskatchewan, he had not lost his harvesting rights or his membership in the northwest Saskatchewan Metis community.

The judge also agreed with the ruling under Powley that it is unnecessary to determine if the Metis community in question forms part of a larger Metis people that extends over a wider area, although he noted that in decisions such as Powley and Willison, it has been held that a community may include more than one village or town.

He also found that involvement in hunting and fishing for food was enough to meet the Powley test for community acceptance and involvement in Metis cultural activities.