Two people, including a Napanee man, plead guilty in an illegal moose hunting case in Thunder Bay.
John Poleschuk of Thunder Bay pleaded guilty to hunting bull moose without a licence, knowingly making a false statement to a conservation officer and being party to the offence of unlawfully invalidating a tag with respect to an animal killed by another person and was fined $7,250.
Meantime, Joshua Stevenson of Napanee pleaded guilty to unlawfully invalidating a tag with respect to an animal killed by another person and for possessing illegally killed wildlife and was fined $2,500.
In a release from the Ministry of Natural Resources, the court heard that on October 16, 2023 a conservation officer was conducting moose hunting enforcement in the Pakashkan Lake area and determined that Poleschuk had shot at a moose just after the end of legal hunting hours but was unable to find the moose.
It says that Poleschuk was only licensed to hunt cow moose in Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) 15B at the time of the hunt.
The next morning, Poleschuk located the moose and determined he had shot a bull moose, an animal he was not licensed to hunt.
Poleschuk sought another hunter, Joshua Stevenson, and had Stevenson invalidate his WMU 15B bull moose tag on the animal.
It is then said that Poleschuk contacted the investigating officer and falsely told them he was unable to locate the moose.
Further investigation found that Poleschuk and Stevenson had not been hunting in accordance with the regulations.
The case was heard by Justice of the Peace Bernard Caron remotely in the Ontario Court of Justice in Thunder Bay, on April 3, 2024.
