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From Canal Flats to Spillimacheen
VALLEY ECHO T he
invermerevalleyecho.com
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Vol.57 56Issue Issue 40 Vol. 49
1
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BERNIE RAVEN CHRIS RAVEN 1-866-598-7415 TEAMRAVEN.CA Offices in Panorama, Invermere & Fairmont
Hurrying hard on Sports Day in Canada
Pg. 11
Appeal filed a month after deer lawsuit dismissed
Dual debuts help Rockies win in overtime Pg. 15
MaxWell Realty Invermere
Hot doggin' hovercraft
GREG AMOS editor@invermerevalleyecho.com
Defenders of local deer are appealing the B.C. Supreme Court's dismissal of their lawsuit one month after the ruling was handed down. The lawsuit, first filed by former Invermere resident Shane Suman on behalf of the deer protection society in early 2012 (when the district was last attempting a deer cull), was dismissed by Madam Justice Miriam Gropper on Friday, October 25th after hearings that took place in Vancouver on October 9th and 10th. In the wake of a November 3rd deer poll question in which half the local voting population cast a ballot, 75 per cent of which supDan Walton/Valley Echo photo ported using deer culls as an option for keepThe frozen surface of Lake Windermere — as well as the open water and beach near Athalmer — provided a great testing area for the ing ungulates in check, the Invermere Deer Windermere Fire Department's new rescue hovercraft on the afternoon of Thursday, November 28th. See more photos on page 2. Protection Society asked the B.C. Court of Appeal on Monday, November 25th to look again oral reasons for judgement, which were acquired by the assistance from the province on the issue, she noted at admitting key evidence in the civil suit. “the District followed the procedure recommended “(The court) did not take into account some of our Valley Echo last week. “Th e affi davits of Messrs. Suman and Kazakoff do not by the Province.” affidavits, but took into account some affidavits from support a conclusion that the meetings of the Deer “I cannot find the petitioners have demonstrated the the District of Invermere, which said the deer committee meetings were open when they actually weren't,” Committee or of the District Council were closed to District's actions in enacting these resolutions was deer society member Vince Zurbriggen told the the public,” she wrote in her decision. “The meetings unreasonable,” she concluded. were not closed to the public.” The deer society used the Judicial Review Procedure Valley Echo. The court ruled the petition failed in its three main Act as the basis of their effort to quash the two coun"We are appealing the judge's decision because we believe that a city council's decision to kill wildlife, such points — a procedural fairness argument, a jurisdic- cil bylaws that authorized culling deer in and around Invermere, while the district's legal defence rested as deer, should be based on reliable scientific evidence," tion argument and an unreasonableness argument. Madam Justice Gropper also noted that the District on the fact that animal control provisions under the said society president Devin Kazakoff in a press release. received Community Charter do not restrict the district from The affidavits in question, from University of Brit- “had managing wildlife. ish Columbia education professor Lesley Andres and complaints from “The meetings were not The district will be submitting in writing a request for wildlife biologist Dr. R.E. Page, were not admitted as residents about deer since 2003,” closed to the public.” reimbursement of more than $30,000 in legal costs, to evidence by Madam Justice Gropper. which the deer society's lawyer, Rebeka Breder, will “They constitute expert opinions on matters collateral and following a MADAM JUSTICE MIRIAM GROPPER May 2010 resothen reply. Madam Justice Gropper left it to the two to the impugned (bylaws) and they are prejudicial to the BC SUPREME COURT lution seeking lawyers to set the schedule for those submissions. District,” wrote Madam Justice Gropper in her 14-page
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