Western Standard - Wild Goose Hunt Alberta RCMP style.

00:00:00.000 okay so i'm sitting with jason siliker who's agreed to talk with me about an interesting

00:00:17.880 easy as an outfitter with canadian premier hunts it's out in the sherwood park region i guess you

00:00:23.600 could say it sounds like uh who had an interesting weekend of of hunting geese uh over the weekend

00:00:31.460 with uh the rcmp coming out to visit and uh it's it's he's put some pictures up on social media and

00:00:37.560 it's really spread around and uh some some people have expressed uh concern or laughed or a number

00:00:42.660 of things but but there's a interesting and some serious issues going on if you could expand on

00:00:47.340 what you experienced last weekend jason uh you appreciate it you bet cory hey thanks for inviting

00:00:52.440 us and like i said uh you know our to accept this invite was more to try to educate people

00:00:57.820 um you know it's a lot easier to educate people through social media and and through the news

00:01:02.520 outlets and it is at uh seven or quarter after seven in the morning with a with a sky full of

00:01:07.480 birds and and people surrounding you asking a bunch of questions so yeah we had we had a couple

00:01:13.060 interesting hunts as you said saturday morning um it was a you know we're going to take a little

00:01:19.180 humor out of this uh we watched a bunch of cruisers traveling up and down a range road we could see

00:01:23.760 from a field we were hunting in and and one of the people in a lay down blind next to me said hey i

00:01:28.060 think there's something going on out there i said sure there is there's a lot of cruisers in this area

00:01:31.800 for this time of morning and it wasn't but 10 minutes later uh we looked behind us and they were all

00:01:36.500 parked behind us with the lights on and no the initial was that they thought we were in a a zone that

00:01:42.780 you could not discharge a firearm um you know being an outfitter in the area i was quite certain

00:01:47.800 that we weren't so we got out officers were very friendly um again not really sure why it took five

00:01:53.860 to come to a hunting complaint but uh we explained all five of them uh walked them back to my to my

00:02:00.360 pickup and got a map out got some literature out and directed them to the strathcone website where by

00:02:05.480 that time they had kind of realized hey maybe they were making a mistake um gave them all the

00:02:10.280 information uh although it did kind of break up our hunt that was that was it for the morning they

00:02:14.620 they informed us that we weren't allowed to hunt there until we heard back from them

00:02:17.700 um short while later probably about two hours later we received a phone call that

00:02:22.520 and and i guess i wasn't able to take the call so they left a message that

00:02:26.080 yes they were sorry uh we were in the right uh they informed the complainants uh that we were in the

00:02:32.760 right that we were good to go uh and they promised that they would send an email out to the

00:02:37.280 detachment to make sure that this didn't happen again and at the time we informed them that uh

00:02:42.800 while they were in the field that we would be hunting that field again the next morning

00:02:46.480 and uh you know we'd be more than happy to educate the population whoever needed educated we would give

00:02:52.000 them the same information so i guess with that said uh we proceeded to hunt the next morning to

00:02:58.480 to get not quite the same thing uh we had one cruiser that showed up uh in the middle of the field and

00:03:03.520 and another one that was stood by on the road and uh i guess you know this this officer kind of knew

00:03:09.920 when he come out that we were probably legal to hunt but he had a call for uh gunfire and he had

00:03:17.040 to finish his investigation so he felt the need to drive across the field come to our our setup and ask

00:03:23.200 us our names and and question us about the gunshots and what was a little bit disappointing with that

00:03:28.240 one is that we had educated five people the day before um again didn't really disturb the hunt we

00:03:34.080 were close to the end of the hunt by the time they came but you know the the big deal was we dealt with

00:03:40.560 it the day before this officer knew that we weren't doing anything illegal but still proceeded to to

00:03:47.520 interrupt a legal hunt uh so a little bit disturbing i guess the biggest thing that we want to try to get

00:03:54.160 out is that we want the authorities you know if if you're in that position us as outfitters we need

00:03:59.760 to know the rules and regulations because if we break them we're we're we're in trouble we we you

00:04:04.080 know we get charged so we ask that the law authority understand the same rules and regulations and and

00:04:09.600 and disturbing a a legal hunt just to finish off your case or to finish off your your documentation is

00:04:16.240 really not the way to go so you know no disrespect to the rcmp and and and all the social media posts

00:04:22.960 i've been doing everything i can to to try to back them up to say hey guys everyone's getting educated

00:04:27.360 here and i just hope that if we take anything from this that we take that there's a little bit

00:04:33.600 more education on both sides um be in the resident side and be in the the authority side that that we

00:04:39.920 get the word out there uh that that everyone knows hey in some of these areas hunting is allowed

00:04:46.880 and the county allows the hunting and and then also to take off of that the counties and especially from

00:04:52.160 us outfitters there's a lot of income that comes in off of these hunts so uh everyone needs to

00:04:57.520 realize it's a business we're doing it uh sometimes you're going to maybe have to listen to a few

00:05:02.720 gunshots for a few different mornings especially in the middle of goose season so yeah well and i

00:05:07.360 understand what the police the first time anyways if you got a firearms complaint i mean it could be

00:05:11.360 potentially very serious they have to take it seriously that's why they don't send somebody alone

00:05:14.960 because we've seen some tragic circumstances in myrethorpe for example uh they have to be careful

00:05:20.880 for their own protection it's quite almost inexcusable the second time okay you guys have

00:05:24.880 been corrected you you know this and i imagine or would guess it might be the same person who

00:05:29.360 who put the the complaint forward so yeah talk talking a little bit about it i mean you're near a

00:05:33.280 populated area uh people who haven't hunted don't necessarily uh understand that uh for example

00:05:40.160 shotguns are quite loud uh they're they're loud uh guns but uh when you're hunting geese and that

00:05:45.920 they don't have a terribly long range they aren't that dangerous as much as it might sound to somebody

00:05:49.680 who's not familiar with them and it could frighten somebody uh i live in a populated area too and we

00:05:55.280 get the same thing year after year uh with with people who commute to the city they're actually urban

00:06:00.880 people who've moved to the country and don't understand that we do this every year out here

00:06:05.520 uh so yeah and as you said it's a business so that disturbed your clients uh experience and hunt

00:06:10.880 they might have only gotten one weekend for it uh which is one of the one of the biggest aspects too

00:06:16.800 and i explained it to the officer yesterday is here in strathcona county and a lot of people will

00:06:21.200 tell you you spend more time hunting for permission than you do actually hunting for game in strathcona

00:06:25.360 county and and it's hard i mean it's you know we get relationships with farmers we get

00:06:30.000 relationships with residents and and we try to keep that relationship and and when we have

00:06:34.800 the rcmp calling at seven o'clock in the morning to a landowner just ask if we have permission to

00:06:39.360 be out there before he comes out it it's not so much hassling it's it's you know the next time we go

00:06:45.520 to that landowner he's going to say you know what i don't need a phone call over at seven o'clock in

00:06:48.720 the morning to to wake me up when you've already called me the day before and we spend especially this

00:06:54.000 time of year with with the harvest you know the farmers are are working late trying to get going in the

00:06:59.680 morning type deal and if they've got authorities calling them to ask them questions um that you

00:07:05.120 know we already know the answers to it's just going to make it that charter for us to get permission to

00:07:10.000 to be on private land yeah well it was it was an unfortunate it's it looks like you took it at

00:07:14.560 least in in good humor you know some of the comments on on your site there at canadian premier

00:07:18.560 hunts on facebook uh there's no sense getting too upset about it but i'm glad you talked because

00:07:22.880 if we could prevent some more of this happening to other people we do have you know urban listeners and and

00:07:27.200 uh uh subscribers of the western standard just a reminder you know if you're hearing things or you

00:07:31.440 see a fella in camouflage walking around with it with a properly encased uh firearm chances are he's

00:07:37.360 probably just hunting and and uh here's there's no need to call the authorities you know what and and

00:07:42.080 for hunters too i mean we've got to respect the rights of of the residents and i mean uh this field

00:07:47.360 in particular we're we're half a kilometer from any resident any building um and and we make sure that

00:07:52.560 we're way back down in the corners of fields and away from residents if you know i think the law is 180

00:07:57.040 or 200 meters is what you need to be away from a resident if you're actually hunting 200 meters

00:08:01.280 from somebody that's like laying a complaint they probably got good reason to lay a complaint i mean

00:08:06.560 to the to the on-trained person around firearms 200 meters is probably too close so you know we make

00:08:12.320 sure that we're out there get away like i said this field we were all but you know the closest house

00:08:17.200 might have been a kilometer away so we've got that five six hundred meters that were the distance

00:08:21.040 themselves if we're doing it safe uh there should be no reason for complaint and and then again like i said

00:08:26.640 it's just education on all parts to to make sure this doesn't happen again yeah and common courtesy

00:08:31.280 and communication i mean if you're hunting and you see a house nearby it's not too early perhaps

00:08:35.760 a knock on the door just to let them know even if it's not their land hey by the way we're we're

00:08:39.360 going to be active in your area if you get the chance or things common sense i guess which is often

00:08:43.600 lacking out there but uh thank you very much for for sitting with me jason i hope the rest of your season

00:08:48.400 goes uh uninterrupted and uh uh lots of successful hunts uh with what's remaining of it oh you bet no

00:09:03.120 no we uh it's a pleasure we love to do it and uh if we keep everyone educated we should be able to keep

00:09:07.920 doing it for a lot of years great thanks well with any luck we won't be talking again or at least

00:09:11.680 not about anything like this

Western Standard - September 28, 2020

Wild Goose Hunt Alberta RCMP style.

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