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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
True North Safaris and Gary Jaeb, a shareholder of the company, are facing charges for wildlife violations after Jaeb helped a hunter kill a bison for a promotional video he was creating for the struggling Tlicho company, which has its head office in Yellowknife.

Jaeb, 64, said last year he invited a hunter from Alberta to shoot the video with the understanding that he would be able to get a bison tag for the hunter, Donald Zenner. But due to some misunderstandings over who had authority to issue the tags, that didn't happen, Jaeb said.

"When Donny Zenner showed up here all I had was one tag and that was my tag," Jaeb told Yellowknifer. "So I let Donny use it to make a TV show and we kept the meat and I thought it was good."

Jaeb has since been charged with transferring the right of a hunting licence to Zenner. He is also charged, along with his son Malcolm, for knowingly inducing Zenner to commit an offence, namely exporting unmanufactured bison parts outside the territory without a permit and, in return for compensation, agreeing to provide guides or equipment to Zenner for the purposes of hunting big game without an outfitter's licence.

True North Safaris is also charged with this last violation and Zenner is charged for hunting wildlife without a licence.

They are all scheduled to appear in Yellowknife territorial court on Aug. 28.

Jaeb said he hopes the judge considers the fact that their actions kept with the spirit of the law and the Tlicho self-government agreement.

The men didn't kill a bison that they didn't have a tag for, according to Jaeb.

"We have been doing this for almost 30 years. We are a Tlicho company, we have respect for all of the traditions and it's questionable about whether a young wildlife officer's interpretation of the letter of the law will prevail in court or whether the spirit of the law and the intent of the self-government agreement will cut some mustard in court," he said.

If found guilty, the penalty for each of the charges would be a fine of $1,000, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

True North Safaris and other outfitters have been struggling financially since territorial Minister Michael Miltenberger took away non-residents and sport hunters' tags to hunt caribou on the Barren Lands in January 2010.

The move came after government studies indicated the Bathurst caribou herd had declined to approximately 32,000 animals in 2009 from 126,000 in 2006.

At its peak, from 1996 to 2006, True North Safaris employed close to 30 Tlicho citizens and supplied a number of families in the community with caribou meat. Now, Jaeb said, the operation is virtually non-existent.

True North Safaris does a little bit of a black bear baiting, Arctic wolf hunting and is looking at doing more bison hunting but the company will likely never be what it once was, Jaeb said.

As a result the community has not only lost a source of revenue but a place for youth to learn traditional practices, Jaeb said. Elders would teach youngsters the ways of the land, how to hunt and how to butcher, for example.

"We were a major contributor to the economy and the society and the way of life. And, yeah, it was for money, it was for meat but it was very traditional too and respectful and incorporated the values," Jaeb said. "It was a teaching, learning environment."

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