Poacher prefers fine to jail sentence

A Yukon judge says he needs more time to decide an appropriate sentence in one of the most serious cases of wildlife poaching he’s ever encountered.

Territorial court Judge Mike Cozens adjourned his decision until Jan. 20 for a 34year-old Whitehorse resident charged with several counts of poaching game animals and permitting meat to waste.

Jonathan Ensor pleaded guilty last week to 16 wildlife violations, including illegally killing a bison, elk, deer, caribou and Dall sheep.

Most of the charges, laid last June, date back to incidents from September and October of 2015. Some reach back to 2014, including charges of poaching a Dall sheep and caribou in B.C. and illegally transporting them back to Yukon.

Crown lawyer Megan Seiling asked the court on Tuesday for a six-month sentence, a $15,000 fine to be paid to the Turn In Poachers and Polluters Program and a 20-year hunting prohibition.

Seiling said Ensor hunted illegally while he was under a firearms prohibition.

Ensor, who represented himself, asked for no time in jail, but a fine of $45,000 instead of $15,000, and a lifetime hunting ban instead of a 20-year-ban.

Serving time could prove to be such a burden for his employer that it may affect the contractor’s ability to fulfil his obligations at the construction sites of a new Salvation Army shelter and the Whitehorse General Hospital expansion, he told the judge.