Withdrawal of charges, suspension of the legal process, acquittal: the vast majority of people accused of killing a caribou, a protected species, end up avoiding any sanction in Quebec, and many cases do not even result in charges.
Since the ban on hunting woodland caribou in 2001, dozens of caribou have been killed by humans, but only about a dozen cases have been brought to court and only two people have been convicted, including one who is currently challenging the decision, court records show (see box below) — hunting mountain caribou has been banned since 1949 and hunting migratory caribou has been banned since 2012 and 2018, depending on the herd.
These results exclude cases of subsistence hunting, still legally practiced by certain indigenous communities, in particular the hunting of migratory caribou, as well as possible situations where a person pleaded guilty after receiving a ticket and paying the fine.
The Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks did not want to specify the number of caribou killed that it had recorded and the conclusion of the investigations that it had conducted.
“Offences have indeed been committed against caribou[s] ” simply declared her spokesperson Ève Morin Desrosiers, referring The Press to the judicial archives and to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP).
The DPCP, for its part, said it was unable to count the accusations brought specifically for the killing of caribou.
Complex investigations
The “insufficient resources to cover a territory as vast as that of Quebec” partly explain this virtual absence of consequences, according to lawyer Merlin Voghel, consultant at the Quebec Center for Environmental Law (CQDE). Finding poachers who attack endangered species requires “lengthy” investigations; search warrants must be obtained, discussions with justices of the peace must be held, witnesses must be questioned, and forensic and ballistic analyses must be carried out, illustrates Me Voghel.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Me Merlin Voghel, consultant at the Quebec Center for Environmental Law
We are talking about an investigation that is identical to a police investigation. It is a playing field that is very similar to criminal law, but which is endowed with a crumb of the resources for the repression of other offences.
Me Merlin Voghel
The lack of knowledge of environmental law in the rest of the judicial system also explains why the killing of caribou remains largely unpunished, believes the lawyer, calling for improved training for those involved.
The Quebec Wildlife Protection Officers Union also notes flaws in the judicial system.
“We have a mass of regulations to accuse a person, [mais c’est] “on top of us”, once the file is submitted to the prosecutors’ office, the charges are sometimes withdrawn, indicates its president, Martin Perreault.
He deplores the fact that wildlife protection officers are not consulted more at this stage, especially in “sensitive cases” such as that of the caribou.
“We are often told: ‘You are here to observe, you are not here to interpret,'” he regrets, convinced that more investigation files by wildlife protection officers deserve to be subjected to the test of the courts.
A “dusty” law
Environmental legislation is particularly “dusty and disconnected from the law,” deplores Me Voghel, an opinion shared by biologist Alain Branchaud, general director of the Quebec section of the Society for Nature and Parks (SNAP).
Even though Quebec has the Threatened or Vulnerable Species Actit’s the Law on the conservation and development of wildlife which provides for penalties for offences committed.
The latter, which notably regulates hunting, is more “thought out in terms of exploitation rather than protection”, deplores Me Voghel.
“There is no other place in the world where we have an approach like this,” adds Mr. Branchaud, who believes that the situation deprives the State of truly dissuasive means.
In particular, higher fines are needed, the two men say, noting that federal legislation – which only applies to federal lands in Quebec – and the laws of other provinces are more severe.
Killing a vulnerable, threatened or endangered animal, for example, is punishable by a maximum fine of $60,000 and 18 months in prison in Quebec, compared to $250,000 and five years in prison at the federal level for a first offence.
The only fine imposed for killing caribou in Quebec was $1,000.
“Our laws allow the Minister of the Environment to act appropriately to protect vulnerable or threatened wildlife and plant species,” assures the press attaché for Minister Benoit Charette, Amélie Moffet.
Quebec still plans to increase the number of wildlife protection officers in the coming years, she indicated.
A few cases, only one fine
$1000 fine
Alexandre Jourdain was sentenced to pay a $1,000 fine for killing an unspecified number of caribou, including two that he abandoned, in 2015, north of Sept-Îles. He allegedly claimed to have killed “only six,” according to a witness statement cited in the judgment, which was upheld on appeal. This is the only sentence imposed to date by a Quebec court for killing caribou.
Termination of the judicial process
Three men accused of hunting caribou in James Bay in 2014 were granted a stay of proceedings in 2017 under the Jordan decision because 28 months had passed since they pleaded not guilty. Three other men accused of hunting caribou in the Chisasibi region in 2014 had their motions for a stay of proceedings dismissed in 2017, but the charges were withdrawn the following year.
No charges
Many cases of caribou killings do not result in charges, such as the high-profile case of four caribou that were killed, gutted and thrown off a lookout along Route 138 near Baie-Comeau in the fall of 2018. That same year, two caribou were killed in Abitibi and another in Gaspésie. “The files were closed due to insufficient evidence,” said a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment.
Female killed in Gaspésie
Two tickets were issued in June following the killing of a female caribou in October 2023 in Gaspésie. Denis Paquette, a 63-year-old man from Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, is accused of hunting an animal whose hunting is prohibited and of having “abandoned the edible flesh of a big game animal that he killed while hunting.” The man has pleaded not guilty. No trial date has yet been set.
Distinguishing the different types of caribou
The caribou is divided into several subspecies, only one of which lives in Quebec: the woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou). Woodland caribou are divided into three “ecotypes”, that is, subgroups that have adapted to the conditions specific to their environment: the forest caribou (called boreal by Ottawa), north of the St. Lawrence River; the mountain caribou, in the Gaspé and the Torngat Mountains, on the border of Quebec and Labrador; and the migratory caribou, in northern Quebec. The forest caribou is a “declarable animal” in Quebec; anyone who sees an injured or dead one must report it to SOS Poaching.