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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife resident has pleaded not guilty to harvesting wood in September 2012 for personal use because he was in Treaty 11 territory.

Barrett Lenoir, a Yellowknife resident who is a member of Liidlii Kue First Nation in Fort Simpson, has pleaded not guilty to transporting wood without a permit in September 2012. The Dene Nation supports his position, stating the GNWT has no authority to charge Lenoir while he is engaged in traditional activities in his treaty territory. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Barrett Lenoir, a member of the Liidlii Kue First Nation in Fort Simpson, was stopped near Behchoko, also within Treaty 11, by a GNWT natural resources officer in September 2012. He had harvested wood in the back of his pickup truck and was charged with transporting it for personal use under the Forest Management Act.

Lenoir, executive assistant with the Dene Nation and the Assembly of First Nations NWT, pleaded not guilty Tuesday and is heading back to court on March 12 to set a date for trial.

Lenoir would not comment on the issue because it is before the court, but Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus said the Dene Nation supports Lenoir's position and that his aboriginal rights are being compromised.

"We are coming to his defence saying that the territorial government has no authority to do what they're attempting to do and, if necessary, we'll prove it again in court. It's unfortunate it's gotten to that point," said Erasmus.

He said charging a treaty member engaged in traditional practices confuses other First Nations band members.

"People that want to go get wood for themselves are hesitant, but we're encouraging them to go out and we're saying that they (the GNWT) have no authority to stop our people. Essentially it's harassment because they know they don't have the authority but they're trying to impose it on us," said Erasmus.

Forty years ago, Dene activist Francois Paulette established a landmark court decision that set the stage for treaty entitlement negotiations. Erasmus said the Paulette Case of 1973, argued in NWT Supreme Court, proved the Dene are the rightful owners of treaty land and the case proved that treaties 8 and 11 are peace and friendship instruments between the Dene and Great Britain.

Another case, dating back to the 1960s, set a precedent relating to hunting, trapping and fishing rights among aboriginal people. Known as the Million Dollar Duck case due to the cost of prosecuting it, Justice J.H. Sissons found hunter Michel Sikyea not guilty to a charge under the Migratory Bird Convention Act for shooting a duck out of season.

A treaty case involving timber for personal use is one that lawyer Steve Cooper, a former NWT resident who practises aboriginal law, said he hasn't encountered.

"I can't see, speaking generically, that it's any different than harvesting anything else from the land or from the water, the sorts of things that treaty rights usually protect," he said.

"How is this essential need any different than the harvest of an animal? You need a couple of things to survive in the North, and one of them is heat and one of them is food and these have always been taken from the land for traditional use.

"I think it would be foolhardy for the government to pursue this charge."

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