RED LAKE — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has released details of a lengthy investigation into illegal moose hunting that resulted in fines and surcharges for tourist outfitters and hunters from the U.S. and Ontario.
The cases were heard in Red Lake court by various justices of the peace earlier this year and in 2023.
A total of 20 defendants were fined over $178,000 and ordered to pay nearly $45,000 in surcharges for a variety of moose-hunting violations.
In addition, a total of 59 years of hunting licence suspensions were imposed.
Bob Green's Fly-In Camps Ltd. pleaded guilty to hunting moose without a licence, discharging a firearm from a motorboat, possessing wildlife illegally killed, making a false statement in a document, and obstructing a conservation officer.
The business was fined $32,500.
For the same offences, Green Airways pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence, but the tourism moose tags and bear management areas held by the company were revoked; Robert A. Green of Red Lake received $30,000 in fines, a five-year hunting licence suspension, and is also prohibited from guiding big game hunters for two years; and Robert W. Green of Red Lake received $12,500 in fines and a five-year hunting licence suspension, and is prohibited from guiding big-game hunters for two years.
According to the MNRF, court heard that Robert A. Green, Robert W. Green, Bob Green's Fly-In Camps and Green Airways Ltd. operate a fly-in only tourist outfitting business, with a main lodge on Mamakwash Lake northeast of Red Lake.
An investigation by conservation officers determined that Robert A. Green, with the assistance of Robert W. Green, guided clients in wildlife management units where the clients were not licensed, directed clients to shoot moose from power boats, and knowingly assisted with the retrieval and possession of moose illegally killed by those clients.
The ministry said the defendants falsified mandatory tourist industry moose hunter reports to conceal the fact moose were killed without licences.
It also said Robert A. Green and Robert W. Green directed clients of the businesses to make false statements and obstruct conservation officers in efforts to conceal the illegal nature of the moose kills.
Approximately 12 moose were taken unlawfully as a result of illegal acts.
Matt and Janelle's Nungesser Lake Lodge, Matt Kehoe, and Janelle Kehoe pleaded guilty to unlawfully buying a licence and hunting a bull and cow moose without a licence. The company was fined $20,000 and received a two-year prohibition on guiding or providing services to big-game hunters.
Hunters from Thunder Bay, Oshawa, the Peterborough area, Indiana, Alabama and Oklahoma pleaded guilty to illegal hunting practices and received a variety of fines and licence suspensions of up to 12 years.
