WINNIPEG – TREATY ONE – Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister recently commented regarding the controversy over night hunting labeling it as “Becoming a race war”. The comments were made while attending a PC party luncheon with Progressive Conservative party members in Virden on Monday January 16, 2017.
Grand Chief Derek Nepinak states, “The comments by Premier Brian Pallister are adding no value to the discussion and are quite damaging to the possibility of reconciliation in rural Man- itoba. Whether you see the issue politically, or from the lens of responsible leadership, the com- ments are unnecessarily inflammatory and only add to the difficulty in addressing long standing challenges that indigenous hunters have faced in accessing our traditional hunting territories.”
Premier Brain Pallister went to comment, “Enforcement alone isn’t going to stop it. So what are we doing? Organizing to bring Indigenous people together. Because it’s becoming a race war, and I don’t want that. Young aboriginal guys going out and shooting a bunch of moose because they can? Because they say it’s their right? Doesn’t make any sense.”
Grand Chief Nepinak concludes, “Indigenous hunters have been on the land harvesting a va- riety of foods fore their families for thousands of years before we made accommodations for agriculture settlement in treaty agreements made with the Crown. There are many people in rural Manitoba who support indigenous hunting and it is now time for that segment of the Manitoba community to work with us to identify solutions to ensure access to our hunting lands as a necessity to save indigenous languages and culture”.
