VANCOUVER — A B.C. guide outfitter banned from hunting and guiding in Yukon after his conviction there on wildlife offences can continue to operate in B.C.
“British Columbians are right to be upset when any hunter violates hunting regulations in any jurisdiction,” Steve Thomson, minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations, said in an email to the Vancouver Sun. “Currently, convictions in another jurisdiction do not cause a person to automatically lose their licence in B.C.”
Kamloops resident Abe Dougan of Big Boar Outfitters was convicted last August in Yukon of wasting meat and hunting too soon after exiting a plane in 2011.
He was fined $15,000 and banned from hunting and guiding there for 20 years. The law requires a six-hour wait after a non-scheduled flight to help protect wildlife from an unfair hunt.
Dougan is also on trial for a dozen poaching charges stemming from a Dall sheep hunt in August 1999.
He is accused of cross-border poaching and lying about where he shot a record-setting Dall mountain sheep.
Dougan said he killed the sheep in a remote part of B.C. where he was entitled to hunt, but he stands accused of killing it in Yukon. Dougan could not be reached to comment.
While it is “rare for a B.C. guide to be banned from operating in another jurisdiction,” the issue deserves further investigation, Thomson said. He has asked staff to “take a closer look at our existing legislative tools to see what options might already be available in circumstances similar to this.”
A Hunting and Angling Advisory Panel, announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in May 2012, is examining the need for penalties such as prohibitions assessed against convicted anglers, hunters and guides in one jurisdiction to be applied equally across the country.
