Poaching in the Matane wildlife reserve

The arrival of Mohawk hunters in the Matane wildlife reserve, coming from as far away as the Montreal region, worries game wardens and Sépaq, who deplore the hunting of moose in the middle of the night.

• Also read: Wild meat black market in Kahnawake

“This has been happening for at least three years,” says Martin Perreault, president of the Union of Wildlife Protection Agents of Quebec.

This night hunting is commonly called “spot” hunting because it is done using lamps producing a powerful light beam. The glowing eyes of the beasts thus betray their position and provide a deadly target for hunters.

This method is formally prohibited in Quebec hunting regulations, but some Aboriginal people do not recognize these rules (see other text).

Fearing for their safety, several stakeholders in the region spoke to our Investigation Office on condition of anonymity. According to our information, the Mohawk group killed around thirty animals this fall. This would be an increase from previous years.

An organized group

“They are easily recognizable with their black pick-up trucks with tinted windows. We can’t see anything inside. They are very well equipped: four-wheelers, winches, spotlights, and all the kit,” says a source.

These hunters speak English, identify themselves as Mohawks, hunt only at night, and leave behind them traces that are unmistakable: moose viscera or pieces of carcasses abandoned on the side of the roads in the early morning.

Pickup trucks are also regularly seen elsewhere in the region, trunks full of moose quarters, including in the middle of winter, when the hunting season is over.

The region overlaps part of the ancestral territory of the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk (Maliseet) First Nation. Vice Chief Shirley Kennedy confirms that poachers matching our sources’ descriptions have been seen this fall.

“The common denominator is that they hunt at night, sitting in the box of the pickup,” she describes, indicating that this way of doing things goes against the code of practice of her nation, which does not hunt than daytime.

Nobody intervenes

M^me Kennedy cannot confirm that they were Mohawk hunters. However, she reported this poaching activity to the authorities.

However, the scenes are repeated without anyone intervening. Questioned by our Bureau of Investigation, everyone is passing the buck.

Sépaq spokesperson Simon Boivin confirms that “irregular acts” have been occurring for “two or three years,” but indicates that employees of the organization can only pass on the information to security protection agents. wildlife.

The president of the agents’ union affirms that his members’ hands are tied, since the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks has given them instructions not to intervene.

“Officers are carrying out verification and identification. It pretty much ends there, he said. It’s at the top of us that this is happening.”

As for the ministry, it replies that “the wildlife protection agents do not have the watchword not to intervene”. “At present, no hunting rights have been established for the Mohawks of Kahnawake in the Matane wildlife reserve,” specifies spokesperson Ève Morin Desrosiers.

– With the collaboration of Patrick Campeau

Moose paradise

The Matane wildlife reserve is considered a moose hunter’s paradise, because it is there that they are found in the greatest number per square kilometer in Quebec.

The chances of killing one are therefore much better than elsewhere: in 2023, the success rate of hunters there was 85%, compared to 56% in all wildlife reserves in the province, according to Sépaq data. .

Hunting territories are allocated by drawing lots. Each group of four to eight hunters must pay $10,650 to spend four days there.

Night hunting

Night hunting is a widely criticized practice because it gives the animal no chance. It is prohibited for sport hunters, but several indigenous nations claim that it reflects their ancestral hunting methods.

In 2006, a judgment from the Supreme Court of British Columbia was rendered in favor of the Tsartlip Nation for subsistence hunting.

The judge ruled that these people originally hunted with arrows and torches and that “the use of weapons, spots and motor vehicles reflects the evolution of historical Tsartlip hunting practices.”

This judgment does not automatically apply to other nations, however. Each must be able to prove in court, like the Tsartlips, that their ancestors practiced torch hunting.

Sold black in a butcher’s shop

Moose hunted in the Matane wildlife reserve are sold under the table in an illegal butchery in Kahnawake, on the South Shore of Montreal.

On Monday, our Bureau of Investigation revealed the existence of a wild meat butcher shop in Kahnawake which sells moose and deer, commonly called venison.

The owner of Wild Bush Cuts Kahnawake, Shane Stacey, told us that he does not hunt the king of the forest himself for commerce, but that he gets his supplies from a Mi’kmaq community in the Matane region. .

“Do you know the people of Listuguj, the Mi’kmaq people? They harvest moose because it is their right, it is their traditional territory, explains the butcher. When someone orders a moose, they make a deposit for hunters in the north. Then they bring the moose carcass here and we cut it up.”

Territory of other nations

But Listuguj spokesperson Michael Isaac counters: “When we harvest, it’s supposed to be for our families.”

Having never sold or ceded their territory, indigenous peoples have the right to hunt for subsistence purposes in their traditional territory or in that of another nation under certain conditions.

Mr. Isaac explains that hunters from other nations who want to hunt on Listuguj territory must obtain permission from his community and are accompanied on the ground, to ensure that they only kill one moose per hunter.

“We try to do everything we can to ensure the protection of the resource,” he says.

As for the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation, it does not grant any other nation the right to hunt on its territory.