Yellowknife (Apr 06/05) - A Supreme Court justice has upheld a lower court ruling dismissing dozens of meat-wasting charges against two federal government officials.

Justice Virginia Schuler ruled crown prosecutors committed a technical error when they filed Wildlife Act charges against Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development employees Lorne Tricoteux and Alexander Glowach.

The pair were each facing 16 counts of squandering caribou meat, stemming from a hunt near Indian Hill Lake - about 250km northeast of Yellowknife - in September of 2002.

Schuler said the Crown laid the charges after a one-year limitation period had expired, upholding a territorial court decision from May of 2004.

"To hold otherwise would be to ignore the clear language and requirements of the applicable legislation," Schuler said in a written decision released April 1.

At the heart of the defence argument to dismiss the case was a technical snafu committed by the Crown in October of 2004.

Tricoteux, Glowach and two other men - Eddie Quitte and Leon Rabesca - were originally charged with 16 violations under the Wildlife Act - one for each of the caribou found squandered at Indian Hill Lake.

In a procedural move, the Crown withdrew the 16 charges and replaced them with a single charge covering all 16 animals. Schuler ruled the decision to withdraw the charges was tantamount to Crown abandoning the case and because the new charge was sworn after the limitation period had expired, the case could not go forward.

"The Crown's right of withdrawal carries with it very specific consequences," Schuler wrote.

"The Crown may have been mistaken as to the legal effect a withdrawal would have, but there is no suggestion (it) was not intentional."

In other words, the Crown intended to re-work the charges, but didn't realize this would kill its case.

Tricoteux and Glowach each faced a maximum of 16 years in prison and a $16,000 fine. Tricoteux is an area director with DIAND. The other men charged in connection with the illegal hunt - Quitte and Rabesca - were both sentenced by a community justice circle in Rae. Officials refused to disclose their punishment.