R v Walker, 2005 NSPC 1 (CanLII)

This case was heard in the Nova Scotia Provincial Court.

Mr. Walker was charged with violating section 26 of the Nova Scotia Wildlife Act by hunting wildlife without a permit. Mr. Walker admitted to killing a deer without a license. However, he claimed he did not need a license to kill the deer because he had been exercising an Aboriginal right to hunt for food.

Courts have found that Aboriginal rights are site-specific. This means that to have an Aboriginal right to hunt for food, Mr. Walker had to prove that he belonged to an Indigenous community that enjoyed the right to hunt and that he had been hunting in an area where the community was entitled to exercise this right. Both parties agreed that Mr. Walker belonged to an Indigenous community. He was a member of the Eel Ground Mi’kmaq Band in New Brunswick. The issue the Court had to consider was whether Mr. Walker was entitled to hunt where he had been found hunting. 

Mr. Walker had hunted on territory traditionally used by Mi’kmaq of the Shubenacadie-Musquodoboit region of Nova Scotia. The Court to decide whether Mr. Walker’s membership in a New Brunswick Mi’kmaq Band meant that he was a member of a contemporary community entitled to hunt for food in the Shubenacadie-Musquodoboit region.

The Court found that there was an Aboriginal right to hunt for food in this area. However, it found that Mr. Walker was not a member of a community that could exercise this right. The Court decided that Mr. Walker did not provide evidence that he had been involved in or accepted by any Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw community in a significant way up to the time he was charged. The Court decided that this meant that Mr. Walker was not considered part of a Mi’kmaq community that was entitled to exercise an Aboriginal right to hunt for food in that area, which meant that he was not entitled to hunt there without a license. 

The Court convicted Mr. Walker of hunting without a valid license.

View the Decision on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nspc/doc/2005/2005nspc1/2005nspc1.html

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