R. v. Jim
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''R. v. Jim'' (1915) 26 C.C.C. 236, was a decision by the
British Columbia Supreme Court British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
on Aboriginal ("Indian") hunting and provincial game laws. The court found that Aboriginal hunting on
Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." In ...
s is primarily a federal jurisdiction, relating to section 91(24) of the
British North America Act, 1867 The ''Constitution Act, 1867'' (french: Loi constitutionnelle de 1867),''The Constitution Act, 1867'', 30 & 31 Victoria (U.K.), c. 3, http://canlii.ca/t/ldsw retrieved on 2019-03-14. originally enacted as the ''British North America Act, 186 ...
which assigns "Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians" to the federal government.


Background

The case involved an Aboriginal chief named Edward Jim of the North Saanich tribe. In
Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...
in 1914 a police magistrate convicted him of possession of a part of a
deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...
in violation of the provincial Game Protection Act. Jim had hunted the deer on a reserve and used the meat in his home. He fought the charges against him by saying he had treaty rights, and that the British North America Act and federal Indian Act ensured the province could not apply this law to Aboriginals.


Decision

Justice Hunter, on the BC Supreme Court, found that the conviction should be overturned. He pointed to section 91(24) of the British North America Act to note that "Indians" are under federal jurisdiction. The federal government had then enacted the Indian Act, and it stated that "Indian lands" are "managed" by the
Governor in Council The King-in-Council or the Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it would mean the monarch exercising executive authority, usually in the form of a ...
. Hunter interpreted the word "managed" to be broad in its application, and that it should include governing hunting and fishing on reserves (Indian lands). Hunter also noted that the federal government did regulate Aboriginal hunting in other provinces, suggesting it would have jurisdiction in
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
as well. The fact that there was no such regulation in British Columbia at the time possibly related to treaties.


Aftermath

Generally, provincial laws apply to Aboriginals. Provincial laws do not apply when they affect "Indianness", primary Aboriginal issues. As a constitutional scholar
Peter Hogg Peter Wardell Hogg (12 March 1939 – 4 February 2020) was a New Zealand-born Canadian legal scholar and lawyer. He was best known as a leading authority on Canadian constitutional law, with the most academic citations in Supreme Court jurisp ...
wrote, "Hunting on a reserve is such a significant element of traditional Indian ways that it should probably be free of provincial regulation." He pointed to ''R. v. Jim'' to back this up. As for hunting outside reserves, the Supreme Court of Canada case '' Kruger and al. v. The Queen'' (1978) suggested this was not "Indianness", whereas '' Dick v. The Queen'' (1985) suggested it was.


See also

*
List of notable Canadian lower court cases A select number of decisions from the superior and inferior courts that have proven to be the leading case law in a number of fields and have subsequently been influential in other provinces, or else they are famous decisions in their own right. T ...
*
The Canadian Crown and First Nations, Inuit and Métis The association between the Canadian Crown and Indigenous peoples in Canada stretches back to the first decisions between North American Indigenous peoples and European colonialists and, over centuries of interface, treaties were established c ...
*
Canadian Aboriginal case law Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
*
Numbered Treaties The Numbered Treaties (or Post-Confederation Treaties) are a series of eleven treaties signed between the First Nations, one of three groups of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the reigning monarch of Canada (Victoria, Edward VII or George V) ...
*
Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982 Section 35 of the ''Constitution Act, 1982'' provides constitutional protection to the indigenous and treaty rights of indigenous peoples in Canada. The section, while within the Constitution of Canada, falls outside the ''Canadian Charter of Rig ...
*
Indian Health Transfer Policy (Canada) The Canadian Indian Health Transfer Policy provides a framework for the assumption of control of health services by Indigenous peoples in Canada and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on the concept of self-determination in hea ...


References


External links


Full text of ''R v Jim''
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