Quebec Innu hunters may face charges
01-03-2010 CBC News, Canada
Newfoundland and Labrador's justice minister said Monday he expects charges to be laid against Quebec Innu hunters who killed animals near a protected caribou herd. "We certainly do," Felix Collins told CBC News. "We certainly hope that the evidence will be sufficient to lay charges."
Felix Collins, Newfoundland and Labrador's justice minister, said prosecuting individual hunters may be difficult. (CBC)
Quebec Innu hunters sparked a furor last week when they pursued caribou near the protected Red Wine caribou herd, which the Newfoundland and Labrador government believes has just 100 animals.
Collins said the government does not know how many animals were killed in last week's hunt, but said "we're assuming it's anywhere from 150 to 200."
The zone where the hunt took place is closed to hunting in order to protect the Red Wine herd.
Collins admitted that it may be difficult to press charges against individual hunters. Conservation officers were kept from the scene last week, largely for safety reasons, and much of the evidence will be based on video surveillance from the air.
"When you put 200 people in there in a volatile situation, a highly charged situation, then the decision of government is not to put our people in harm's way," Collins told CBC News.
"Evidence taken from surveillance cameras presents some challenges because you have to identify a shooter with a dead animal on the ground and given the angles of the cameras and the lighting and the clothing and distinguishing one individual from the other and what not, it takes quite a challenge to do that."
Collins said no evidence was seized at the scene.
Quebec hunters say the slaughter was done to protest their exclusion from a deal that will compensate Labrador Innu for the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric megaproject.
(Bron: http://www.cbc.ca/)
(Bron foto: CBC)
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