A lawyer for the Métis National Council has confirmed the organization will take an Alberta hunting rights case to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Jason Madden says the case touches on Métis harvesting rights across the Prairies.
He says the case, which revolves around a Métis hunter who shot a mule deer in southeastern Alberta in 2007, has to be treated differently than the Supreme Court’s Powley decision.
That case, he says, dealt with the area of land around Sault St. Marie, Ontario, and not the wide-ranging plains of the Prairies.
“Our point is that Section 35 protects the customs, practices and traditions of the Aboriginal people prior to Canada becoming Canada,” he says. “The custom, practice and tradition of the Métis was they roamed the prairie to harvest buffalo, as well as, they were highly mobile people.”
Madden says if Métis people move between settlements while chasing game, they shouldn’t lose their harvesting rights.