A Métis hunting rights case in Alberta is back before the courts.
The province’s court of appeal is set to hear the evidence surrounding a day in 2007 when a Métis man shot a deer near the Cypress Hills region.
A three-member panel will hear arguments about whether the man’s harvesting rights should extend into a portion of southern Alberta.
The hunt was part of a protest against the government’s decision to cancel a previous harvesting agreement.
Métis groups are arguing they have the right to hunt for food in the area.
They point to Métis hunters of previous generations who harvested buffalo in the area and moved around freely.
The province’s stance is that no traditional Métis villages existed at the time and Métis didn’t enter the region until there was a Mounted Police presence due to fears of Blackfoot Indians.
Métis National Council president Clem Chartier says the government’s argument is flawed.
He also says the case ties into a larger problem involving the government’s tendency to deal with Métis rights on a site-specific approach.
“This will lend itself to that because we’re talking about a more expansive geographic territory – the historic Northwest which is basically the Métis Nation homeland and trying to get broader principles of law adopted by the courts.”
Chartier says the case is similar to other Métis harvesting cases in Saskatchewan.
These include the Morin-Daigneault Case in the north, the Bellhemeur case in the south and the Laviolette case in Meadow Lake.