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The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld an American Indigenous man’s right to hunt in Canada because his ancestors traditionally did so.

Richard Desautel was originally charged under the Wildlife Act with hunting without a licence and hunting big game while not a resident of B.C. after he shot and killed an elk near Castlegar in 2010.

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Desautel, a member of the Lakes Tribe in Washington state, argued in provincial court that he was exercising his constitutional right to hunt for ceremonial purposes.

The Lakes Tribe was described in court as a “successor group” to the Sinixt people, who lived, hunted and gathered in B.C.’s Kootenay region before first contact with European settlers.

The B.C. Supreme Court confirmed his right in 2017 and the Appeal Court reaffirmed it in a ruling released Thursday.

In dismissing the Crown’s appeal on behalf of a three-judge panel, Justice Daphne Smith says hunting in what is now B.C. was a central and significant part of the Sinixt’s distinctive culture before European contact and remains integral to the Lakes Tribe.