Pakua Shipi Innu accused of illegal caribou hunting launch constitutional challenge

Three men accused of illegally hunting caribou in southern Labrador are launching a constitutional challenge, citing aboriginal rights to hunt on traditional grounds.

Roger Mark, Jacques Mark, and Jean Phillipe Vollant are all members of the Pakua Shipi Innu Band accused of hunting in 2015 in the Birchy Lakes area of Labrador, where a caribou hunting ban has been in place since 2013.

"We challenge the law because of lack of consultation, of non-recognition of Innu rights," said lawyer Franois Lvesque, who represents the three accused.

Pakua Shipi is on the Lower North Shore of Quebec, near St. Augustine. Lvesquesays the border between the two provinces is not one his clients recognize.

"When you make laws, you have to make sure you have the power to make laws. So in our case, we challenge the border, we challenge the right of Newfoundland and Labrador to make that kind of [law]," he said.

"Hunting, gathering and fishing belongs to the Innu, who have been there for a million years."

Members of the Pakua ShipiBand have flouted the ban since it came into place, arguing that the province has no authority to make laws that interfere with traditional Innu hunting practices.

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In this case, Lvesquesays his clients maintain their innocence but also their right to hunt.

"When it comes to the Innu rights to hunt and fish, that's the federal government that has to make the laws," Lvesque said.

Similar case before the court

The case has similarities to another working its way through provincial court in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Ten men from Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation are accused of illegally hunting caribou in charges dating back to 2013.

The accused in that case are also mounting a constitutional challenge, but Lvesque saidthe outcome of one case is not necessarily an indication of how the other will go.

"The result may vary, one will not necessarily bend another," Lvesquesaid, pointing to the Labrador Innu's ongoing land claim negotiations with the federal government. Lvesquesaidthe Pakua Shipi have no such agreement with Ottawa about land claims.

In an email, a spokesperson for the department of justice said the Office of Public Prosecutions had received notice of the constitutional challenge.

The case is back in provincial court June 13.