OC Online - For Better or For Worse

text by Outdoor Canada editors
photos courtesy of individuals

For Better Or Worse (part 8)

Bill Otway, 67, has been fighting for the rights of anglers and hunters in B.C. since the early 1970s when he was named executive director of the B.C. Wildlife Federation. And as the recreational fisheries advisor/ombudsman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) for 15 years starting in 1985, Otway influenced numerous policy decisions affecting B.C.’s fish. But Otway’s latest endeavour may be his most significant. Two years ago he helped launch the Sportfishing Defence Alliance, formed largely in response to DFO management policies following the Supreme Court’s Sparrow Decision (see bio of Ronald Sparrow). Currently the group’s president, Otway contends that the DFO is unfairly penalizing sport anglers by imposing blanket fishing bans meant to prevent Native gill netting. Otway’s group vows to fight such bans while protecting, by any legal or political means, the right of all Canadians to fish.

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, one of the biggest threats facing the Canadian wilderness was Hydro Quebec’s proposed Great Whale dam project, which entailed the flooding of almost 3,400 square kilometres of lakes, rivers and forest in northern Quebec. That was until Bill Namagoose, 45, got on the case. As executive director of the Grand Council of the Crees, Namagoose was instrumental in getting the massive project deep-sixed. Among his tactics? A lobbying campaign in the northeastern U.S.—where much of the electricity from the new hydroelectric dam would be sold—asking American utility providers not to sign contracts with Hydro Quebec. Ironically, Namagoose is better known today as one of the Cree leaders who agreed to yet another Hydro Quebec scheme: the diversion of the Rupert River to feed a massive hyroelectric dam. In return, the Cree, who are sorely in need of jobs, housing and community infrastructure, will receive $3.4 billion over the next 50 years. And, as Namagoose points out, take a step toward self-government.

In the world of taxidermy, Shawn Galea (left) and James McGregor are star material, having won numerous competitions at the masters level of their craft. More importantly, however, the 33-year-olds have been at the forefront of promoting replica mounts—and giving catch-and-release fishing a shot in the arm in the process. Through their business, Advanced Taxidermy, Galea and McGregor have shown that with a few simple measurements and some decent photos, anglers can have a lifelike mount without sacrificing the real thing. While they might not be the first Canadians to use replica mounts, observes Rob Therrien of the Canadian Taxidermy Association, the pair has brought the craft to a whole new level.

Steve and Roddy Powley are responsible for kickstarting the process to get the hunting rights of Ontario Métis on par with those of the province’s other Aboriginal peoples. It all started in 1993 when Steve Powley and his son, Roddy, shot a moose near their home in Sault Ste. Marie. Rather than attach a valid Ontario government moose tag, however, they left behind a handwritten note explaining that the animal was their meat for the winter. A week later they were charged, but the judge at the first trial ruled that they had the right to hunt thanks to Section 35 of 1982’s Constitution Act (also see Ronald Sparrow’s bio). The Ontario government appealed the decision twice, losing in both the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Appeal. The case is now poised to go before the Supreme Court of Canada, although Ontario’s Métis currently enjoy the right to hunt and fish for food thanks to the earlier Court of Appeal ruling. For its part, Ontario has argued that Native rights can’t be granted to the Métis since there is no accurate mechanism for determining who is—or isn’t—a member of their community. As a government briefing contends, “It is difficult to develop an allocation for Métis harvest of large game while the definition of who is Métis remains controversial.”