Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada BC's Aboriginals now making the rules

...on bear hunting.

It's time for the government to step in and enforce the laws. We've looked sideways too long when native bands arbitrarily decide on hunting regulations.


First nations on British Columbia�s north and central coast have banded together to declare that trophy bear hunting is banned in their territory, a move that could lock hunters out of an area twice the size of Vancouver Island.

But the move to put bear hunting off limits in the Great Bear Rainforest � a 70,000-square-kilometre swath of rugged fjords, coastal mountains and old-growth timber � doesn�t sit well with provincial officials or B.C. hunting guides, who say only the government has the authority to make games laws.

Mr. Ellis said the commercial revenue from the guide/outfitting business is about $120-million annually. �Hunting has been going on, on the north and central coast, for more than 100 years,� he said. �And the bear populations are healthy.�

He said the ban is driven by those who want to close down hunting for the benefit of bear watching. The ecotourism industry is developing in the Great Bear Rainforest, a region world famous for its primordial forests and its rare white-phase black bears.

B.C.�s unique Kermode � a black bear that is as white as a polar bear because of a recessive gene � is found only in the Great Bear Rainforest, a zone which stretches from north of Vancouver Island to the Alaska Panhandle. Although Kermode bears are protected and cannot legally be shot, it is impossible for hunters to know if a black-colored black bear has the recessive gene that could produce white offspring.

But Mr. Ellis said hunters take only about 2 per cent of the overall bear population, and with an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 black bears in the region, the gene pool is big enough that the Kermode is not threatened.

�There is no issue with the bear population,� Mr. Ellis said. �Our hunting is science-based, it�s sound.�

But Chief Doug Neasloss, of the Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation, himself a bear-watching guide, said the hunting has to stop.

�Despite years of effort by the Coastal First Nations to find a resolution to this issue with the province this senseless and brutal trophy hunt continues,� he said in a statement released Wednesday. �We will now assume the authority to monitor and enforce a closure of this senseless trophy hunt.�

But B.C.�s Forests and Lands Minister, Steve Thomson, said the province is clearly responsible for setting hunting regulations. �I�m disappointed in the declaration that they�ve taken. Given that the province has the responsibility for setting the harvest limits, we�d ask them to respect that authority,� he said.

Mr. Thomson said it is not clear how first nations intend to enforce the ban, and �it�s too soon to say exactly how we�re going to respond without more specifics on the actions that they might take.�

But he said he has instructed wildlife staff to open discussions with the bands that make up the Coastal First Nations, an alliance of 10 bands.

William Housty, integrated resource manager for the Heiltsuk Nation, said the issue has come to a collision point because bear watching is developing rapidly in the Great Bear Rainforest, and native tourism guides are tired of coming across bear carcasses.

�Our people on the coast are leaning towards ecotourism and we don�t see this as a good fit,� he said. �A lot of bears are shot in estuaries, in the fall when the salmon are running � the skin and head and claws are taken, but the carcasses are just left there. It�s gruesome.�

Mr. Housty didn�t know what first nations members would do if bear hunters enter the area this fall, but he said the declaration is intended to send a clear message: �They aren�t welcome here.�

Native calling for conservation...Imagine that

Well, here we go again, in the devious and baseless attempt by the tiny minority of the descendants of the primitive Neolithic hominids, who happened to "immigrate" into MY Canada, a bit before we built this great nation.

Their head "chief", another coastal aborigine, has stated that they WILL take over ALL hunting here in the near future and we are allowing this travesty to go forth as we are SO brainwashed by the socialist lies about "racism" taught in our pathetic public "education" system.

For almost all of my life, I have fervently believed in absolute equality in EVERY aspect of life for ALL Canadians and also LEGAL residents, landed immigrants and even "refugees". I voted N.D.P. actually studied Canadian history and still do, currently Lamb's C.P.R. opus and I was happy to believe that WE Canucks, were evolving a nation in which any sane person would be proud to be a citizen..........

During my time with our Coast Guard, the WHITE citizens on Vancouver Island. on a volunteer basis, planted and nurtured Roosevelt Elk, at Shaw Creek on the Island. The herd grew and L.E.H. sports-subsistence hunting on an equitable basis was in the offing....then, suddenly, the herd was decimated by the wanton slaughter and leaving of the carcasses of several of these Elk.

Several years later, it was determined that some members of "the nootka tribe"....there are NO "first nations" in Canada, had slaughtered these animals and this, they claimed, was their "aboriginal RIGHT".......as this sort of travesty continued and increased, my feelings about aboriginals and every aspect of Canadian life concerned with them changed and I now am not exactly "pro" indian or half-breed and I also despise the leftist traitors who attempt to assist these phoney "conservationists" in their shenanigans.

I believe that Canada, may yet see an actual "shooting war" where these aborigines are concerned, given the many harassments of, attacks upon and injuries of decent Canuck citizens who were simply going about their business when an encounter happened. With the preferential treatment of these criminal cowards in our, laffin' here, "Justice System", I expect to see more attacks upon "Whitey" and this will result in reprisals of a violent nature, sooner rather than later.

My solution would be an absolute and total ban on firearms for ALL persons of partial or total aboriginal ethnicity and manadatory hanging for any that attack and injure Canadian citizens. Then, an act of parliament to set aside ALL treaties, agreements and special "status" for them; let them have the same rights and responsibilities as we native Canadians and naturalized citizens, but, without any guns as firearms are NOT a part of the "culture" they constantly whinge about.

If, they want to fight about this, use the Canadian Army to settle the issue.

oh wait, for a small yearly fee of a few million dollars, I am sure they will lift the ban

Have the same problem here in Washington. The natives shoot elk and deer at the winter feeding stations. They drive up and just start shooting into the herds of animals. Many are wounded. They only retrieve the big bulls and bucks. Funny many of the natives have blonde hair and blue eyes but the have their tribal membership card because they have 1/16th native blood.

They decimate salmon and steelhead by placing nets in spawning rivers. Nest will stay in rivers for weeks with dead and rotting salmon and steelhead while the native owners are passed out drunk at home.

They constantly poach deer and elk on my property and neighbors' properties. The local fish and game guys are afraid to do anything because of political correctness and white guilt taught in our school systems. The old game warden would arrest them and write them up for drinking, expired tags on vehicles run them for warrants.

I hope this didn't surprise you. They have been doing this on the Queen Charlotte Islands for some time now. The government caved and now has set a total harvest limit of 4 bears for the entire two regions (6-12 and 6-13).

Did you know that moose, mule deer, caribou and brown bear used to inhabit the Queen Charlotte Islands? They went extinct well before contact with Europeans. I wonder why.

They must have had mammoths there at one time too? :-)

Lol...yes, and mammoths are still running all over the countryside elsewhere, just like Caribou, Mule Deer, Moose and Brown Bear.

I have always believe we should honor the treaties but they must use the equipment they had at the time of the treaties. In other words no modern guns, no gill nets, no modern fishing lures or boats. That should make things a little more normal for them and they would have to work for success. Cheers NC

Under what legal authority do these native tribes profess to have jurisdiction over hunting regulations in BC,especially "closing seasons" on certain species?

Who said anything about legal? These yahoos have gotten so used to being catered to, that they figure they'll get what they want, just because they say so!

One of the big problems is that there are very few treaties in British Columbia. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 stated that the Crown must sign treaties with the natives before land could be ceded. Here in BC there were only 15 treaties signed - 14 of them on Vancouver Island - before the Nisga'a treaty was signed in 2000.

So, in a nutshell there is a long and painful ongoing treaty process and the natives basically say "these are our unextinguished rights". I believe the government is using kid gloves because they don't want to harm the treaty making process.

Also, we can thank Pierre Trudeau for the Charter of Rights which, while failing to mention anything about protection of property rights, has a section dedicated to Aboriginal Rights:


Note "existing aboriginal rights" - in other words those that weren't extinguished. This means that any time a native person is charged with some sort of fish/wildlife violation, you can bet dollars to donuts that a "Charter Defence" will be front and centre.

So they don't have jurisdiction over hunting regulations (yet), but not much is done when they do draw a line in the sand.

I don't know anything about Canada's constitutional structure;whether provincial game laws are somehow subordinate in a conflict between federal treaties and laws enacted by the individual provinces.

It seems the tribal mandates are not based on any sound biological data concerning bear populations,sustained harvest, etc.,but it is pretty clear that it is being done to advance the commercial interests of a select group engaged in a particular area of commerce,to the exclusion of other persons engaged in similiar commerce,or recreational hunting.

Does that qualify as "aboriginal rights" pursuant to the treaties? I doubt one of those rights included leading eco-tourists around by the hand to take photos of bears.

From reading, it seems the bear hunting situation in BC is in a constant state of flux;up and down and back and forth,as if the professional game managers are under constant pressure from anti-hunting forces to eliminate the hunting on emotonal grounds.

There is always one conclusive way to end this bullsh--. It is called erasure.

Bob, your summary is largely correct, however, there is an agenda here and it is that the major corporations who have always controlled Canada...and, much of the USA, WANT this to happen.

If, you wonder WHY such an apparently contradictory and socially unjust situation is fostered by all governments and political parties here, well, think WATER, EXPORTS and social upheaval due to this.......

Quiescent injuns= corporate control of BC water, hydropower and even petro-resources....and, this is happening NOW.

BobinNH- they basically say: (a)your population data is insufficient/inaccurate/incorrect; (b)the harvest is unsustainable; (c)we have a right to the resource; and (d)since you are not doing anything to protect our rights we will.

So they set up a blockade or whatever, cause a big uproar and the government scurries to do something. That usually means some sort of "co-operation" with respect to management and quota.

It is all about money and power.

Isn't it grand?? My family will reap the benefits of this latest scam to sell out the whities!! While your out pulling the 9-5 workweek we will be put drinking umbrella drinks in Maui on all the royalty money!!

When, as has so often happened in human history, the patience of the majority for the injustices and dishonesty of a particularly useless minority finally ends...and, that IS coming, the result will be a "civil war" of an especially nasty type.

Think heli-gunships pounding the "rez" and the domiciles of "status" injuns, who fantasize about Maui and maybe get real for once.

BTW, I suggest that you READ the actual comments of native Hawaians, being transported home in Royal Navy ships in the very early days of founding civilization in BC, where they openly stated what they thought of the aborigines here on the coast.....might make you reconsider some of your usual bullsh!t.

They, were NOT very impressed..........

I am surprised that you rose to the bait.

Heh, heh, Jim (CS) and I go back several years on this and a couple of BC sites, it is a sort of standing joke to see which of us can pizz off the other most......kinda gives me a chuckle every so often.......

My comment about the Hawaians and their attitudes IS historically correct, however and it is very telling within a context of "native"........