Court
overturns Métis hunting rights in Okanagan Nation Territory
Posted July11, 2006
OKANAGAN NATION ALLIANCE 3255 C
Shannon Lake Road, Westbank, BC V4T 1V4 Phone (250) 707-0095 Fax
(250) 707-0166 www.syilx.org
MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
June 27, 2006
Court overturns Métis hunting rights in Okanagan Nation
Territory
VERNON, B.C.: The BC Supreme Court yesterday handed down a decision
in the Métis hunting rights case R. v. Willison, ruling
that Métis peoples do not have an aboriginal right to hunt
in the Okanagan region. The Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) had
intervened.
“We are extremely pleased with this result” said Chief
Stewart Phillip. “We intervened in this case because our
histories show clearly that the Métis never established
a community in Okanagan territory. Métis people have moved
to the Okanagan recently from elsewhere, and the Court agreed
that they do not have an independent constitutional right to use
the land and resources in Okanagan Territory.”
On November 26, 2000 Gregory Willison was charged with shooting
a deer out of season and hunting without a licence near Falkland.
At his Provincial Court trial he successfully argued that as a
Métis person he had a constitutional right to hunt in the
Okanagan region. The Provincial Court decision (R. v. Willison
2005 BCPC 131) set a precedent as the first decision finding a
Métis hunting right in B.C.
During the hotly contested appeal, the ONA and the Province’s
lawyers argued that the Provincial Court judge made a fundamental
error in finding that there was an historic rights bearing Métis
community in the Okanagan Valley in the period when the Hudson’s
Bay Company flourished. Proof of an historic Métis community
is an essential part of the test stated by the Supreme Court of
Canada in the decision of R. v. Powley, 2003 SCC 43 for proof
of a Métis right. The evidence established that it was
the ancestors of the ONA who lived in and controlled the lands
and resources throughout the Okanagan region prior to the 1860’s,
and that the Métis presence was limited to a few temporary
employees attached to Hudson Bay Company fur trading posts.
Mr. Justice Williamson of the BC Supreme Court noted that “the
evidence demonstrates … that there were a small number of
Métis present in the area for a relatively short period
of time”, he overturned the Provincial Court judge and ruled
that there was no persuasive evidence of an historic Métis
community in the Okanagan region. He went on to also rule that
there was insufficient evidence of a contemporary Métis
community in the Okanagan.
Chief Stewart Phillip said, “The Okanagan First Nations
were denied an opportunity to present our evidence before the
Provincial Court, and were forced to intervene in the BC Supreme
Court to make our voice heard. If a Métis person wants
to hunt in Okanagan territory, the ONA has a protocol in place.
This is a matter of respect.”
-30-
For more information contact:
Chief Stewart Phillip, Okanagan Nation Alliance (250) 490-5314The
UBCIC is a NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic
and Social Council of the United Nations
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