Powley Case
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Saturday,
September 20, 2003 - 09:00
Powley vows to continue fight
The Sault Star
By FRANK DOBROVNIK
Ten years and many, many court proceedings ago, Steve Powley could hardly have guessed what he had wrought.
Powley had spent a lifetime obeying non-aboriginal hunting protocol, annually applying for a moose tag and annually losing the lottery.
"When the draw first came out, the government said every four years you'll get either a bull or cow tag. I went seven years and never got nothing but a calf tag. I couldn't feed the family on one calf," he recalls now. I said, Ive got to get the meat. Everything depended on the meat.
Steve and his son, Roddy, shot a bull moose and left it in the bush near Sault Ste. Marie to collect later, along with their own tag: the elder's membership card to the Ontario Mitis Aboriginal Association and a note explaining, Shot to feed my family for the winter.
It was the first time Powley had tested his Mitis status. Ontarios Ministry of Natural Resources charged him and Roddy with hunting without a license.
One court after another dismissed the charges, effectively agreeing with the argument put forward by the Mitis Nation of Ontario : that Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution, which asserts that First Nations, Inuit and Mitis have aboriginal rights, implicitly includes hunting rights.
On Friday, the Powleys legal battle ended with a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court of Canada upholding the lower court rulings. The wide sweep of the ruling shocked even Steve Powley, who was in Ottawa Friday.
I would have been happy with them saying, yes, we were Mitis and we do exist, he said.
But we got the whole ball of wax that we initially went to court for. It was just amazing. People were screaming and yelling in the lobby.
It was only as the years went on that he started to realize the wider implications of his act.
At first I didnt (see the importance) but as the years went on I realized its not just helping my sons and daughters and grand-daughters. Its helping all Mitis, he said.
The recognition is not limited to hunting, either. Its going to open up the whole ball of wax. Its like dropping a house of ants: its just going to spread.
It was a wiser and older Powley who was there to hear the decision with his own ears. Now 55, he mostly uses a wheelchair, a result of a foot infection he got while hunting and complicated by diabetes; he still hunts, but now from a vehicle.
He plans on heading for the bush after returning Sunday and after a rest.
Powley admits to being tired, but vows to continue the struggle. He and Roddy are special advisers to the MNOs negotiations team, which two years ago began community consultations on harvesting issues and negotiations with the province.
I'm tired of it, but it's got to be done . . . You've got to fight for the people you care about.
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