Retrial of Sask. Métis hunters to examine scope of traditional harvesting rights

Warren Boyer's legal odyssey may be nearly over. He hopes so.

"Nobody's getting any younger so hopefully this is it, but who knows," Boyer, 58, said just days before his new trial begins in Meadow Lake provincial court.

Boyer has been in and out of court since he was charged for fishing without a license in 2014. Boyer and Oliver Poitras were tried together and convicted in 2018 for illegal hunting.

Four years later the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal overturned that ruling and ordered a new trial. The provincial government unsuccessfully appealed that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The new trial begins April 14 in Meadow Lake provincial court. It could be a landmark case that expands Métis harvesting rights in the province, said lawyer Kathy Hodgson-Smith, who represents Boyer, Poitras and Harold St. Pierre, a third hunter added as a defendant for the new trial.

"We're going to see whether or not we can get a definitive answer for the Métis of Saskatchewan and the people of Saskatchewan about where Métis Section 35 rights exist," Hodgson-Smith told reporters at a news conference.

"If you're living in Regina, can you hunt, trap and fish for food in your, in a community for which you have historic ties? What is the right of mobility? This test case is designed in a way to answer the question for everyone."

Previous court decisions established Métis hunting rights for specific, traditionally used areas in the province, but Boyer and Poitras argue those rights apply to a much larger area because of the historical mobility of Métis groups.

The original trial's judge ruled that their rights weren't protected because they harvested outside the boundaries of the historic Métis community of northwest Saskatchewan, which includes Meadow Lake, Île à la Crosse and Green Lake.

The appeals court granted them a new trial so the men can advance their constitutional claim, which wasn't heard in the initial trial.

In 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R v. Powley that Métis have the right to hunt for food under Section 35 of the Constitution Act.

Boyer was ice fishing on Chitek Lake, where he's lived his entire life, when he was charged in 2014.

"I've never really had a licence to begin with, so I've always used my Métis card for hunting and fishing," Boyer said.

"As a sustenance hunter and fisher I believe the Métis had that right all along. So that's what I practised, and I still to this day don't get a licence for hunting or fishing."