Law360 Canada ( April 23, 2021, 1:24 PM EDT) -- Appeal by the Crown from a decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal that confirmed the acquittal of the respondent Desautel on charges of hunting without a licence and hunting big game while not being a resident of the province. In 2010, Desautel, a citizen of the United States, shot a cow-elk in British Columbia. He was a member of the Lakes Tribe of the Coville Confederated Tribes in Washington state, a successor group of the Sinixt people. He shot the elk within the ancestral territory of the Sinixt people in British Columbia. The trial judge found Desautel was exercising an Aboriginal right to hunt guaranteed by the Constitution Act, 1982. She held the right was infringed by the Wildlife Act and was not justified. She acquitted Desautel. The summary conviction appeal judge and the Court of Appeal dismissed the Crown’s appeals and confirmed Desautel’s Aboriginal right to hunt in British Columbia. On appeal, the Crown raised as a constitutional question whether the relevant provisions of the Wildlife Act were of no force or effect with respect to Desautel by reason of an Aboriginal right within the meaning of s. 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982....