A marauding black bear near the author’s home in Sudbury, Ontario. Photograph courtesy of Marthe Brown.
by Mike Commito
Ontario had its last spring black bear hunt fifteen years ago. Dating back to 1937, the province’s spring hunt was primarily for non-resident hunters. But spring hunting picked up in 1961 after the Department of Lands and Forests declared the black bear a game animal. By the mid-1990s, spring bear hunting had been well established as a significant revenue generator for northern Ontario communities and an important management tool.
Around this time, however, opposition flared up over the spring hunting season, largely over the ethics of bear baiting and the fate of orphaned cubs after the accidental shooting of mother bears. Consequently, an amalgam of animal welfare, animal rights, and conservationist groups – colloquially known as the “Bear Alliance” – organized a campaign to have the hunt repealed. By 1999, following aggressive marketing and political lobbying, the Bear Alliance succeeded in convincing Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government to abruptly cancel the hunt.
In the immediate aftermath of the decision, hunters, outfitters, and residents in northern Ontario charged that emotion and politics had trumped science and conservation. They called supporters of the decision, “bleeding heart liberals” and denounced their opponents’ authority on the matter because of their overwhelmingly non-rural residency. Throughout the debate and afterwards, critics referenced “urban southern Ontario” and even “Toronto” in a derisive manner. The idea that people living in areas far removed from bears had influenced government policy was viewed as unacceptable; even more so because it was done using emotionally charged arguments about orphaned cubs. As a result, the idea of local knowledge and place forms an interesting part of the debate that still persists today. Continue reading →
