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The Manitoba M\u00e9tis Federation is accusing the provincial and federal governments of violating the constitutional right of its citizens to hunt and fish in parts of the province.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The federation says in two statements of claim filed Thursday that various M\u00e9tis citizens have been charged with violating provincial and federal regulations for hunting and fishing within regulated game-hunting areas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, as a “rights-bearing Indigenous collectivity,” the federation says the Red River M\u00e9tis have the right to hunt, fish and gather food in those areas and that those rights are protected by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is seeking declarations from a judge that current federal and provincial restrictions on hunting, fishing and gathering food in those specific areas throughout the province are in violation of the constitutional rights of Red River M\u00e9tis citizens. <\/p>\n
One claim pertains to game-hunting areas in Hecla, which is on Lake Winnipeg, Paint Lake \u2014 about 30 kilometres south of Thompson \u2014 and Gillam, located along the Nelson River in northern Manitoba.<\/p>\n
The other claim relates to areas in and around Grass River, northeast of Thompson, and Manigotagan, located on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, across from Hecla.<\/p>\n
A 2012 agreement between the province and the federation recognized harvesting rights and the application of traditional M\u00e9tis laws governing hunting and fishing throughout parts of Manitoba. The agreement excluded the regulated areas the federation is suing over, the claims say.<\/p>\n
The agreement was predicated on the acknowledgement from the provincial government that M\u00e9tis people held harvesting rights throughout larger portions of the province, though those rights wouldn’t be recognized at the time for “political reasons,” the claims say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was also agreed that the province would collect further research into other areas of the province where M\u00e9tis harvesting rights would be further recognized, the claims say.<\/p>\n
The claims also suggest that despite asking the province to pursue research and further recognize M\u00e9tis harvesting rights in the areas specified in the claim, the Crown “has failed or refused” to do so.<\/p>\n
Traditional \u00a0harvesting traditions <\/a>\u00a0dictate that only M\u00e9tis citizens can participate in the collectively held rights of the Red River M\u00e9tis. Their status as as Indigenous collective with rights protected by the Constitution was reaffirmed in a \u00a02008 <\/a>\u00a0court decision, which the province did not appeal, the claims say.\u00a0<\/p>\n A M\u00e9tis citizen exercising their harvesting rights is required to possess an MMF harvester card and other management or conservation tags issued by the federation, along with adhering to traditional guidelines, the claims say.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under federal and provincial regulations, harvesting rights within the areas subject to the litigation require M\u00e9tis citizens to have government-issued hunting licences. There are also limitations on the number of fish that can be kept, the gear they can use to fish for food, and other restrictions. The federation says in the lawsuit that that is in conflict with their constitutional rights.<\/p>\n The MMF says in both lawsuits that the provincial and federal governments “failed to discharge their respective procedural duty to consult with and accommodate” the federation before enacting any laws restricting the rights of M\u00e9tis people.<\/p>\n The claim also alleges both governments have failed to take the required measures necessary to ensure legislation is consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.<\/p>\n The declaration became<\/a>\u00a0Canadian law in June 2021. Provincial \u00a0legislation <\/a>\u00a0says Manitoba’s commitment to reconciliation will be guided by principles set out in the declaration.<\/p>\n The federation suggests the declaration reaffirms the rights of the Red River M\u00e9tis to hunt and fish in their traditional territory.<\/p>\n The province has declined to comment on the lawsuits, as they are before the courts.\u00a0<\/p>\n The federal government is aware of the lawsuits and will respond through the appropriate legal channels once it has reviewed them, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada said in an email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-758930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758930","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=758930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}