Defiant bear rescuer loses job as conservation officer

A B.C. conservation officer who spared two orphaned bear cubs and sparked an international, star-studded fury when he was suspended has returned to work.

But it’s unclear what duties or role Bryce Casavant now has within the B.C. public service.

The government would confirm only that Casavant reported for work on Friday in a different job but one equal in pay and classification to his old job as a wildlife conservation officer.

“There was a thorough review of the situation,” said Jamie Edwardson, spokesman for the B.C. Public Service Agency.

“The decision that resulted was to reassign the employee to an equivalent position.”

Casavant, who could not be reached for comment on Friday, continues to work on northern Vancouver Island, although not in the conservation service. He was suspended from work in July after he refused to kill two bear cubs.

The cubs’ mother was killed in Port Hardy by Casavant after she twice raided a freezer for meat and fish and was deemed to have become too habituated to people.

Casavant disagreed with an order to destroy the cubs and they were instead transferred to a wildlife recovery centre in Errington.

He was suspended for refusing orders. Within days, an online petition was gathering signatures. By Friday, it had topped 301,000.

British actor and comedian Ricky Gervais called Casavant “an honourable man” and demanded his reinstatement.

The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union is fighting the job transfer. President Stephanie Smith said the union regards the transfer as an unwarranted discipline.

“We firmly believe that Bryce was operating within the policies and procedures of the conservation office,” Smith said. “We believe his transfer out of that office is disciplinary, so we’ll be grieving that as well.”

Meanwhile, the two bear cubs, known as Jordan and Athena, remain at the North Island Recov- ery Centre, along with five others.

Julie Mackey, wildlife assistant manager at the centre, said the cubs will be held and fed until next fall when they can likely be set loose.

Mackey said contact between people and bears at the centre is kept to a minimum to stop the animals from becoming habituated.

“Right now, they are very scared of us, which is great. They are not showing any signs of being into garbage or backyard food sources or people contact.”