New Radio-Canada
Photo: Bruce Burnstead
Will Goodon (center) celebrates his victory. A
Manitoba Metis won a major legal battle against the provincial government.
Judge John Coombs of the Provincial Court ruled in favor of Will Goodon was charged under the Act on wildlife conservation, with hunting ducks without a license near the Turtle Mountain in October 2004. Will Goodon argued that Métis identity card was sufficient.
J. Coombs bases its decision on case law in the Supreme Court of Canada relating to the case of two mestizo brothers accused of having killed a moose near Staut Ste Marie, Ontario. The country's highest court ruled that the Métis were entitled to the same hunting rights as First Nations and Inuit if they can prove their ancestral ties.
J. Coombs also pointed out that in the case Goodon, witnesses had demonstrated that the Metis ancestors practiced subsistence hunting in the area of Turtle Mountain.
