Government sued over hunting restrictions

The Yukon government broke every treaty commitment under the sun last fall when it brought in new hunting restrictions on the Porcupine caribou herd, say two N.W.T. aboriginal organizations.

The Yukon government broke every treaty commitment under the sun last fall when it brought in new hunting restrictions on the Porcupine caribou herd, say two N.W.T. aboriginal organizations.

The Gwich’in Tribal Council and the Inuvialuit Game Council, both based in Inuvik, filed a legal action last Friday asking the Yukon Supreme Court to cancel the hunting restrictions.

It also asks the court to declare that the Yukon failed to live up to commitments and obligations made in several land claim and management agreements.

The Gwich’in tribal and Inuvialuit game councils maintain in their lawsuit the Yukon government has constitutional duties to consult affected governments and parties before making decisions like imposing last fall’s hunting restrictions.

It failed on several fronts to live up to those duties, the legal challenge maintains.

The lawsuit comes just two weeks after the Yukon government, the game council, the tribal council and other parties signed off an agreement to work toward finalizing a harvest management plan for the herd, a plan which currently includes the same restrictions imposed by the Yukon government.

Chief Joe Linklater of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation of Old Crow, which is also party to the Jan. 15th agreement, said this morning he will be immediately seeking clarification to determine whether the lawsuit will affect efforts to finalize a harvest management plan.

He suspects, however, the legal challenge is focused more on issues of aboriginal rights than specific provisions of the harvest management plan, though he emphasized he cannot speak with any certainty because he just learned of the development.

“Absolutely,” Linklater replied when asked if he’ll be asking the Yukon government whether the legal actions will affect its participation in the effort to come up with a harvest plan by the end of March.

“It’s one of the questions my people are going to asking and I have to come up with some sort of answer.”

Linklater said he will be speaking to all parties to see if the legal challenge will affect their participation in discussions around the harvest management plan.

Gwich’in Tribal president Richard Nerysoo confirmed with the Star early this afternoon that indeed the legal action is about the Yukon government’s duty to live up to aboriginal treaty obligations. And he expects the work on the harvest management plan will continue with the Yukon government’s full participation, he said.

“You need to see it for what it is,” Nerysoo said of the lawsuit.

“It should not stop us from working together. It should not stop us from reaching a harvest management plan, and it should not stop us from ensuring there is a sustainable Porcupine caribou herd, which is a totally different matter.”

Nerysoo said from what he knows working with Premier Dennis Fentie and government officials on both sides of the border, he believes the lawsuits will not affect the Yukon government’s participation on the harvest management discussions.

There was no response from the cabinet to the Star this morning on the question.

For more than a couple of years now, the Porcupine Caribou Management Board has been trying to finalize a harvest management plan, amid serious concerns that the herd’s population is in trouble.

Yukon, Alaskan and N.W.T. management officials, however, have not been able to get an accurate aerial count in seven years because of weather and the herd’s varying migration patterns.

Many believe, however, that the population has fallen to 100,000 or fewer, and needs to be given some protection to ensure it doesn’t fall below its ability to recover.

The caribou management board has been working with communities and officials on both sides of the border to establish a harvest management plan, though one has to be finalized.

Last fall, Yukon Environment Minister Elaine Taylor introduced emergency restrictions to prohibit the harvest of any cows by all hunters, including aboriginal hunters, as a means of protecting the breeding stock.

Joe Tetlichi, chair of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, expressed concern with Taylor’s decision at the time, suggesting hunters were already restricting their harvest to bulls only.

The minister’s order, he suggested last fall, would only hurt the ongoing efforts to achieve widespread community support for the proposed harvest plan.

The minister, on the other hand, insisted the herd could not afford another year of voluntary compliance with a bulls-only policy.

Taylor also implemented mandatory reporting of all harvests, even aboriginal harvests, though the emergency legislation did not include restrictions on the number of bulls aboriginal hunters could take.

The proposed harvest management plan currently being worked on does include a bulls-only requirement and mandatory reporting, Linklater confirmed.

He reiterated it appears to him the Gwich’in Tribal Council and the Inuvialuit Game Council are using the lawsuits to emphasize their aboriginal rights.”

“It appears to me to be a legal challenge to protect aboriginal rights and it just so happens to be the rights are surrounding the Porcupine caribou herd,” he said.

“It could have been any number of things, but it happened to be the Porcupine caribou.”