Fines and Forfeitures for Transport and Possession of Illegally Killed Muskox

In September 2012 a case involving illegally killed muskox, reported by Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), caused a stir among hunters across the country. Two Ontario men were fined a total of $5,500, and their taxidermy muskox mounts were forfeited to the Crown, because of hunts filmed seven years earlier on Victoria Island in Nunavut.

What the video showed

The hunts took place in April 2005 and were filmed for a Canadian hunting television show. Acting on a tip, the MNR got a search warrant and seized the raw footage from a video production company in Ontario.

Investigators from the MNR, Environment Canada’s enforcement branch and the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Environment went through the footage. Nunavut law at the time made it illegal to use a vehicle or snowmobile to knowingly get within 1.5 kilometres of a muskox in order to hunt it. The videos showed the hunters being driven well inside that distance so they could choose and shoot the animals they wanted. In one hunt, guides on snowmobiles herded muskoxen toward the hunter.

Three muskoxen were shipped to Ontario and mounted as trophies.

The charges

By the time the evidence came to light, the limitation period for charging anyone with the killings in Nunavut had run out. Investigators used two other laws instead:

• Federal law. One hunter pleaded guilty under the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act to illegally transporting two muskoxen from Nunavut to Ontario, and was fined $4,000.
• Ontario law. The second hunter pleaded guilty under Ontario’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1997 to possessing a muskox that had been killed and exported in breach of Nunavut law, and was fined $1,500.

Ontario’s wildlife law makes it an offence to possess wildlife in Ontario that was taken illegally somewhere else. That allowed the case to go ahead after the Nunavut charges had expired.

Why hunters paid attention

The case led to a lot of discussion on outdoors blogs and hunting forums. Much of it was about hunting television itself, which was then under pressure from broadcasters dropping hunting shows. Many hunters said the case showed why fair-chase rules matter: if a hunt is shown on television, it should be a lawful hunt.

It was also an early example of the sort of evidence wildlife officers now use routinely. Footage, photos and social media posts made to show off a hunt can later be used to prosecute it.

Report a violation

To report a natural resources violation in Ontario, call the MNR TIPS line at 1-877-847-7667, or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.