By Maggie Kirk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter In 1993, two Métis men, Steve and Roddy Powley, hunted a moose near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., asserting their right to harvest on their traditional lands — an action that would alter the course of Métis rights in Canada. The father and son were charged with hunting a moose illegally and argued that, as Métis people, they had a constitutionally protected right to hunt on their traditional lands. After a ten-year legal battle ending in 2003, the Supreme Court ruling affirmed the rights of Métis people under section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act. All 14 judges who reviewed the case agreed with the two Sault locals, who fought not only for the rights to their own land but for all Métis people…
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