Released video shows fatal shooting of Métis hunters

A jury is being asked to decide whether newly released video footage of two Métis hunters being shot to death on a rural Alberta road is evidence that the shooting was done in self-defence or with intent to kill.

It will be up to the jurors to assess what happened after they hear from Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers during the second-degree murder trial for Anthony Bilodeau, 33, and his father, Roger Bilodeau, 58. Both have pleaded not guilty in the trial, which began earlier this week.

The two men who were shot — Jacob Sansom, 39, and his uncle, Morris Cardinal, 57 — had been hunting on March 27, 2020, successfully bagging a moose.

After going to a friend’s near Glendon, a small farming village in eastern Alberta, to skin the animal and drink some beer, Sansom and Cardinal departed and eventually came to be near Roger Bilodeau’s residence just north of the village.

Court has heard that Roger Bilodeau thought the two men were suspicious and decided to pursue them, at speeds as fast as 152 kilometres an hour, with his 16-year-old son, Joseph Bilodeau, in the passenger seat.

At some point, Roger Bilodeau called Joseph’s brother Anthony and told him to bring a gun, and that “these sons of bitches are coming to steal or do something.”

What happened next was captured on a surveillance camera mounted near a Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. gas plant. The footage, released by the court Wednesday, is central for both the Crown lawyers, who say it shows how the Bilodeau men had intended to kill the two hunters, and the defence lawyers, who argue it shows how the accused men had to defend themselves.

The trial continues Thursday.

At some point, Roger Bilodeau called one of his sons and told him to bring a gun, and that “these sons of bitches are coming to steal or do something”