http://www.edmontonjournal.com/techn...003/story.html
Alberta Metis lawyers urge judge to ‘go outside the box’
Final arguments begin in landmark Metis hunting case
By Darcy Henton, edmontonjournal.com June 23, 2010
Metis hunter Ron Jones poses with the antelope he shot near Suffield, Alberta, on January 26, 2008, in defiance of the province's decision to ban out-of-season hunting.
Photograph by: Bruce Edwards, edmontonjournal.com
MEDICINE HAT — Lawyers for Alberta Metis are urging a provincial court judge to "go outside the box" with a decision that goes beyond what the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in previous Metis hunting cases.
Jean Teillet, a descendent of Metis leader Louis Riel, told judge Ted Fisher Tuesday that he need not link Metis hunting rights to specific communities or regions as judges have done in previous cases in other jurisdictions.
Alberta Metis were a mobile people who hunted across the plains and can't be restricted to hunting around settlements in northern Alberta, Teillet said.
"We think that you should get out of that box," she said in the first of three days of final arguments in a landmark Metis hunting trial that has stretched more than a year.
She rejected the province's contention that Metis have no constitutional right to hunt in southern Alberta because they didn't live there.
Teillet was arguing before about 50 Metis supporters from across Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Teillet said a ruling is necessary because a court decision can't be pulled back at the whim of a government.
Teillet said Alberta and Metis had a successful interim hunting agreement that the government unilaterally rescinded. "I think the evidence is pretty clear it fell victim to the winds of political change," she told the court.
The trial, which began in May 2009 in Medicine Hat, has heard from 35 witnesses, including six experts in Metis history. It is expected to conclude this week with final summations by lawyers for the Metis Nation of Alberta and the provincial government. There may not be a decision before the end of the year.
The key issue is not whether Metis have a constitutional right to hunt, but where they can exercise it.
The Alberta government says Metis, who primarily reside today in northern Alberta, can hunt in 160-kilometre radius of specific northern Alberta communities only, but the Metis say their rights to hunt should extend across the province.
Ron Jones, of Leduc, and Garry Hirsekorn, of Medicine Hat, initiated the court action more than two years ago when they killed animals out of season for food in community hunts staged by the Metis organization.
More than 25 other Metis hunters have also been charged with hunting illegally, and what happens in this case will determine if it is necessary for them to go to trial.
The charges stem from community hunts the Metis staged to force the matter into court after the province ended the interim hunting agreement that recognized that Metis could hunt, gather and fish for food anywhere in the province. That agreement was reached after the Supreme Court's 2003 Powley decision recognizing a Metis constitutional right to hunt.
So special rights aren't enough, they now wish for
Extra special rights.