Spence Bay (May 15/06) - Three Taloyoak men may have set a precedent for Inuktitut speakers in trouble with the law, says their lawyer.

Saul Kooktook Kokiak Peetooloot and David Tucktoo were charged in 2001 for illegally possessing narwhal tusks and hunting without a licence. Tuktoo died in 2004 though.

Charges were thrown out by trial judge Robert Kilpatrick two years ago but the Crown appealed that decision.

In a decision released May 5, Justice John Vertes upheld Kilpatrick's ruling that fisheries officers obtained narwhal tusks as evidence from the men unfairly. The English speaking fisheries officers also didn't properly inform the Inuktitut-speaking men of their legal rights, the judge ruled.

"It's absolutely huge," defence lawyer Marvin Bloos said of the decision. "Authorities have to come away with the concept that if they're dealing with people who are speaking Inuktitut, they have to recognize that fact."

The men were charged after a pod of narwhals showed up off Taloyoak in 2001, a rare occurrence in the hamlet of 700. The community had a quota of 10 whales and hunters are supposed to have tags for each whale before they are harvested. But the local wildlife offices allowed people to catch a whale and then collect a tag after.

When so many whales turned up at once, the whole community scrambled to catch one. They ended up harvesting 13 whales. Kooktook, Peetooloot and Tucktoo were the last to the wildlife office and by that time the tags were gone, Bloos said.

"In a sense it was who could run to the office fastest to get a tag."

Fisheries officers also erred by phoning the three men and asking them to bring the harvested tusks down to the local wildlife office, because that violated their charter rights against self-incrimination, the judge said.

Taloyoak mayor Jimmy Oleekatalik said the community is relieved the case is over.

"I know for sure they didn't do it for the tusks, they did it for the muqtuq," he said. "Usually we never, ever get the narwhals."

During the appeal, Bloos asked Vertes to request changes to the justice system that would require authorities to provide Inuktitut-speaking accused with a form explaining their legal rights.

Vertes rejected that request saying there was no evidence of a systemic problem.

Alex Ikejiani, Crown counsel for Fisheries and Oceans Canada during the appeal, said Vertes didn't make a ruling on charter issues or language rights, but simply took them into consideration when determining if the narwhal tusks were admissible as evidence.

"This was never a charter or language rights case," he said. "It was pushed by defence counsel."

He said the Crown is reviewing the Vertes decision, but hasn't decided whether to pursue another appeal.

If not, the case would end there.

Peetooloot and Kooktook were unavailable for comment.