R v Christmas, 2003 NSCA 67 (CanLII)

This appeal was heard in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. It was an appeal of the decision in R v Christmas, 2002 CanLII 16440 (NS SC).

The appellant, Thomas Stephen Christmas, had been charged with hunting at night with the aid of a light in violation of section 68 of the Nova Scotia Wildlife Act. Mr. Christmas was a member of the Eskasoni Mi’kmaq Nation. He had argued at trial that he had an Aboriginal right to hunt which exempted him from section 68 of the Act. 

Mr. Christmas had been acquitted following the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia’s ruling in R v Bernard, 2002 NSCA 5 (CanLII) that section 68 of the Wildlife Act did not apply to Mi’kmaw hunters exercising a valid Aboriginal right to hunt. However, R v Bernard had later been appealed, and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruled that section 68 actually did apply to Mi’kmaw hunters. In light of this decision, the Crown appealed Mr. Christmas’s acquittal, and the court found that it had to follow R v Bernard. It found that section 68 applied to Mi’kmaq hunters and ordered a new trial. 

In the current case, the Court had to decide whether the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal was incorrect in finding it had to follow the decision in R v Bernard and holding that section 68 of the Wildlife Act applied to Mi’kmaq hunters. The Court ruled that this decision had been correct. It ruled that the Court of Appeal had been correct when it decided that it had to follow the court’s decision in the appeal of R v Bernard and that section 68 applied to Mi’kmaq hunters exercising a valid Aboriginal right to hunt.

The appeal was dismissed.

View the Decision on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nsca/doc/2003/2003nsca67/2003nsca67.html

Disclaimer:
Case briefs in our Resource Library are drafted by law students who work or volunteer with East Coast Environmental Law, and East Coast Environmental Law does not guarantee their fullness or accuracy. Library users should not rely on case briefs as comprehensive accounts of the issues, facts, reasoning, or outcomes at stake in any given case. 

If you require more detailed information about a court decision or legal issue, please consider using our Environmental Law Inquiry Service to request information from our staff.