The respondents, who are Métis, shot and killed a bull moose without a licence and were charged under the Game and Fish Act.
They claimed an aboriginal right to hunt for food under s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.
The trial judge and the Superior Court judge found that the respondents had an aboriginal right to hunt for food that was infringed by the Act, and that the infringement was not justified.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the Crown's appeal, holding that the Van der Peet test must be modified for Métis claims to account for their post-contact ethnogenesis.
The Court found that hunting was an integral practice of the historic Métis community at Sault Ste.
Marie, that a contemporary community exists in continuity with the historic one, and that the respondents are members.
The infringement was not justified, but the Court granted a one-year stay of the judgment to allow the government to develop a new regulatory regime.
