Welcome to Cases That Should Have Gone to the Supreme Court of Canada, But Didn’t! This week, lawyer Kyla Lee discusses the environmental law and conservation officers.
Acumen Law Corporation lawyer Kyla Lee gives her take on a made-in-Canada court case each week and discusses why these cases should have been heard by Canada’s highest court: the Supreme Court of Canada.
Tiana Jackson discovered an orphaned bear cub in the woods one day. She contacted conservation officers who advised her that they would trap the bear and determine how to deal with it. Instead, she trapped the bear herself and when conservation officers arrived she informed them that she had already made arrangements for the bear to be transported to a wildlife rehabilitation centre which would look after it.
The conservation officer who arrived at the location looked at the bear, determined that it could not be rehabilitated, and put it down on the spot.
The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals intervened and brought an action against the BC government arguing that conservation officers powers went too far.
The Supreme Court of Canada had an opportunity here to clarify when conservation officers get to make the determination about whether an animal can be rehabilitated or whether that’s best left to the experts.
Watch the video for more.
