\u201cRavens, squirrels, chipmunks, bears, coyotes, you name it, they show up and then that\u2019s a problem and then the place gets closed because there\u2019s a bear sighting and then no one can go there, so this is why it needs to be taken seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
BANFF \u2013 Several Calgary picnickers and a camper who carelessly left food and garbage unattended in Banff National Park were slapped with fines and\u00a0given a stern warning in Canmore court about protecting wildlife and people.<\/p>\n
In the Alberta Court of Justice in Canmore on July 16, nine men who left food and garbage readily available for wildlife to get into at Cascade Ponds were each fined $50 while a camper at Johnston Canyon was fined $250 for leaving food and garbage accessible to wildlife.<\/p>\n
Justice Karl Wilberg told the nine picnickers that he hopes \u201cyou will do better in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCascade Ponds is very popular. It\u2019s a beautiful place but if you leave your food out and go away \u2013\u00a0 half an hour is a long time \u2013 the animals in the Bow Valley are very hungry and they will be there in five minutes or less,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRavens, squirrels, chipmunks, bears, coyotes, you name it, they show up and then that\u2019s a problem and then the place gets closed because there\u2019s a bear sighting and then no one can go there, so this is why it needs to be taken seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amandeep Singh, Jaspreet Singh, Amrinder Singh, Jattana Singh, Gurjit Singh, Dhillon J. Singh, Mann Singh, Dhillon T. Singh and Ramandeep Singh all pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving food and garbage accessible to wildlife at Cascade Ponds under the Canada National Parks Act.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutor Ken McDonald said a park warden received a call from a wildlife officer at 9 p.m. on May 17, 2025, about an unattended picnic table at the popular day-use area just north of the Banff townsite.<\/p>\n
He said the men were gone for at least 30 minutes from the picnic table.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a large volume of picnic items \u2013 food, open alcohol, and garbage\u2026 they had to clean that all up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were also multiple bear sightings in the area and trail closures, not that there was any indication that animals had gotten into the food at this stage, but I emphasize the danger that was present for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crown sought a\u00a0$50 fine from each of the nine men. The fines will be paid into the environmental damage fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdded together that would come to $450 and normally for one individual I seek $300. It\u2019s just a little bit higher because there were nine people,\u201d said McDonald.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Janice Taylor, duty counsel at the courthouse, said a number of options were offered to the nine men, but each felt more comfortable taking responsibility for their part.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think these men all understand now why there are regulations about leaving food out at picnic areas and campgrounds in a national park,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s to protect the wildlife and the other people who are users of the park as well as residents who live in Banff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also in Canmore court on July 16 was Calgarian Vihai Bhalavat who pleaded guilty after he was part of a group that left garbage containing food scraps and garbage hanging in a garbage bag on a tree at a campsite at Johnston Canyon on May 1 this year.<\/p>\n
McDonald said a park warden was called to the campground around 2:30 p.m.\u00a0after wildlife attractants were spotted hanging in the garbage bag in a tree, with no campers at their site.<\/p>\n
“The photo shows dirty used plates, cups, chip bags, coffee cups, egg shells and other refuse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was some evidence that wildlife had accessed some garbage bags.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor, who also represented Bhalavat as duty counsel, said he did take steps to put away food and plates, but simply forgot to take the garbage bag when the group went for a walk for about 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey left the garbage. It was attached to a tree and that\u2019s what got torn apart, I suspect by crows or magpies or some other bird,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor asked for a $300 fine but Wilberg dropped it to $250, considering Bhalava had missed a day of work and used vacation time to attend court in person to deal with the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take into account also that you took some steps, you did some clean up, but, of course, the problem is you can\u2019t leave the garbage unsecured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
These tickets under the Canada National Parks Act do not result in a criminal record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cRavens, squirrels, chipmunks, bears, coyotes, you name it, they show up and then that\u2019s a problem and then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-22736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}