The Manitoba Metis Federation is currently hosting a series of consultations throughout the province on night hunting and night lighting.
A total of nine consultations have been held in within the MMF regions and Dauphin’s was held on August 12.
Jonathan Hamel, Communications Director for the MMF, talks about why the consultations are being held.
“Recently in the last year or so, there has been a lot of attention around this,” noted Hamel. “The Manitoba Metis Federation decided to hold night hunting and night lighting consultations throughout all the seven MMF regions to hear from our Metis citizens and Metis harvesters about their perspectives on night hunting and night lighting in Manitoba. So as a Metis government, it’s our responsibility to listen to what our citizens are telling us and so we are holding these consultations to get a feel for what they’re thoughts are and then we will proceed according to the direction we receive from our constituents.”
Metis status citizens have the unextinguished right to harvest through their preferred means, which includes night hunting and night lighting; however the MMF is consulting to determine whether or not they will choose to exercise this right.