Accused given benefit of doubt in night hunting case

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This article was published 03/02/2022 (1506 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TWO Manitoba men caught in a truck with a rifle and ammunition at the ready as they shone flashlights into a farmer’s field were found not guilty of night hunting.

A judge ruled she could not outright reject their claim they were just looking around.

Richard Gilbert Fontaine and Jeffrey Lohr-Mansbridge stood trial charged with hunting at night without a permit and hunting on private land without the owner’s permission.

“Is it suspicious that Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Lohr-Mansbridge were driving around in the middle of the night with the light bar on and moving flashlights over the field? Yes, of course it is,” provincial court Judge Catherine Carlson wrote in her decision acquitting the men.

“In the circumstances, although Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Lohr-Mansbridge were more likely than not, hunting at the relevant time, that is not the criminal standard (of proof beyond a reasonable doubt),” Carlson said.

Court was told Manitoba Conservation officers were patrolling an area near St. Labre, which is known to attract illegal night hunters, shortly after midnight on Nov. 10, 2020, when they saw the occupants of a pickup truck on a provincial road shining flashlights into a farmer’s field.

Officers pulled over the vehicle and found a .308-calibre rifle next to the driver’s seat and four rounds of ammunition sitting on the centre console. In addition to flashlights, the officers seized a laser pointer, which court heard can be used to blind an animal before shooting it.

Indigenous people in southern Manitoba are allowed to hunt at night if they have a permit. Hunting on private land is allowed with the permission of the landowner. Court heard a “no hunting/no trespassing” sign was posted on the field where Fontaine and Lohr-Mansbridge were arrested.

Court heard no evidence any animals had been spotted in the area, but the two men could still be found guilty of hunting if it could be established they were searching for animals, Carlson said.

Fontaine, the owner of the truck and rifle, testified he had spent the previous day hunting without success on Crown land around Marchand. Later that evening, he and Lohr-Mansbridge, who Fontaine described as being “along for the ride,” drove up and down gravel roads looking for alfalfa fields. Fontaine said alfalfa fields are good hunting grounds and it was his intention, if they found one, to return later and ask the property owner for permission to hunt on it.

Carlson said Fontaine testified in a “straightforward way,” consistent with his claim he had finished hunting for the day.

“While I cannot just say I believe Mr. Fontaine’s evidence that they were just looking to see if the fields had alfalfa in them and did not intend to shoot wildlife, even if they saw some that night, given all the circumstances, including that the rifle was not loaded, his evidence does leave me with reasonable doubt that they were hunting,” Carlson said.

“While it is certainly a reasonable inference from the evidence that the accused were indeed hunting, in my view, it is also a reasonable inference, although a less likely probable one, that they were indeed driving around, using lights to find future potential hunting spots,” she said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca