Judges side with wildlife officer who refused to kill cubs
Refusal to follow order to kill bear cubs led to court battle
VICTORIA — A conservation officer who was fired for refusing to kill two bear cubs near Port Hardy in 2015 is feeling vindicated by a court decision that determined he was improperly terminated.
“A guy can walk a little taller today,” Bryce Casavant said by phone from his home in Port Alberni.
In the June 4 decision, Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon wrote for the B.C. Court of Appeal that Casavant’s challenge to his termination as a conservation officer “set in motion an ill-considered series of proceedings” under the Labour Relations Code. Fenlon determined that the Labour Board did not have authority to address the matter, because Casavant’s dismissal should have been addressed under the Police Act.
The other judges on the panel, Justice Peter Willcock and John Hunter, concurred with the decision.
Conservation officers in B.C. are special provincial constables under the Police Act.
“The appellant’s dismissal related to the performance of his constabulary duties and was governed by the Police Act,” Fenlon wrote, adding the proceedings before the Labour Board are void.
Fenlon stopped short of ruling that Casavant should be reinstated, but said she would “leave the parties to sort out the consequences” of her decision.
Casavant made international headlines in 2015 when he refused an emailed order from a superior to kill two bear cubs whose mother he euthanized after she entered a home in the Port Hardy area through an open door.
He took the cubs to a veterinarian, who assessed them and transferred the animals to the North Island Wildlife
Recovery Centre. They were released into the wild in the summer of 2016.
Casavant said Saturday he was required to kill the sow because it had entered a residence. But he maintains he had discretion as to whether to kill or spare the cubs, because there was no evidence they had been in the home or become habituated to garbage.
“That kill order is requiring me to discharge my service weapon. You know, there’s a whole host of issues with that. So, I didn’t kill them,” said Casavant, who became a conservation officer in 2013 after a military career.
His decision to spare the cubs led to his dismissal from the Conservation Officer Service and a settlement agreement that transferred him to a position in the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development at equal pay.
It also sparked a five-year fight by Casavant in the courts that ended Thursday.
Casavant said he refused to give up because he wanted to hold the government accountable.
“For many years, both the union and the government were told that this was an unlawful and incorrect process. And they chose to do it anyways,” he said.
Casavant said he also wanted to set the record straight on a personal level.
“I had senior-level bureaucrats misleading decision makers, developing records after the fact, making stories up, and saying false, misleading and inaccurate information about me.”
In a letter outlining the reasons for his dismissal, the Ministry of Environment said Casavant had demonstrated an “unsuitability” to work as a conservation officer, listing two other instances when he had refused to follow directions.
“It is clear that you will continue to (not) follow instructions and policies in your capacity as a conservation officer if you disagree with them. You confirmed this in your interview with us, when you said that in the future, with the same information you would make the same decision and take the same action regarding the bear situation,” the ministry wrote in an Aug. 25, 2015, letter included in the Court of Appeal decision.
Casavant said both additional allegations were false and misrepresented him. In one instance, the ministry said he conducted an “unknown risk vehicle check” on his own, which he was not authorized to do, but Casavant said he was assisted by a colleague with 20 years of experience
A Ministry of Environment spokesman said the ministry would not be commenting on the decision.