Chris Hunsley
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Aug 08/05) - An Inuvik man is outraged after police charged him with two criminal offenses after he gave the RCMP permission to enter his cabin while searching for a missing man.

Willard Hagen was to appear in territorial court Tuesday in Inuvik to speak to charges that he illegally stored a firearm and knowingly possessed an unauthorized firearm.

The matter was adjourned to Aug. 22.

Hagen, the chair of the Gwich'in Land and Water Board and former three-term president of the Gwich'in Tribal Council, said the charges were laid after he allowed RCMP to enter his cabin 65 miles north-east of Inuvik, Jan. 25, while searching for Gordon Moore.

Moore, whose cabin is next door to Hagen's on a property they share, had been missing for two days at the time.

His body was never found and Moore is presumed dead.

"I wanted to help find my friend of 30 years and thought if this helps then it's fine with me," said Hagen who had not visited the property for more than six months.

12-gauge shotgun

"The last thing I expected after we give them a hand big time was for them to turn around and abuse my hospitality and charge me."

RCMP seized a 12-gauge shotgun from underneath a bed in Hagen's cabin and a buffalo gun mounted on the wall as decoration.

The guns were not loaded. Shells were found in a nearby garage. Fourteen other guns, four belonging to Moore, were seized from the property.

Most had been there for decades and did not work, Hagen said.

Charges were not laid until May 11, after Hagen contacted the police twice in relation to the seizure, he said.

The police would not comment on the case, saying the information is currently before the courts.

Chief Inspector Jim Cunningham, acting director of criminal operations for the NWT, however, recently commented that officers had been instructed to use discretion when dealing with firearm storage at outpost camps.

Fight all the way

Hagen said he'll fight the charges all the way to the Supreme Court if he has to.

"We (aboriginals) have a right to hunt and trap with weapons we need to survive," he said, acknowledging he does not have a licence.

"They can go to hell. I won't have a licence, then they win."

As for illegal storage, Hagen explained the cabin is in a wilderness area inaccessible except via plane and was locked.

Section 96 of the Canadian Firearms Safety Course Handbook states: In a remote area where hunting might reasonably occur, a non-restricted firearm may be stored unlocked, out in the open and accessible to ammunition as long as the firearm is unloaded.

Non-restricted firearms may also be stored unlocked for predator control.

In the past, five bears have been shot within feet of the cabin, said Hagen.