Fourth Year Winner: Animal Rights: Examining Socio-Legal Claims for Animal Justice

SOSC 4365, Animal Rights Debates. CD: Tyler Totten.

Abstract

In this fictional (but highly realistic and compelling) legal debate, the author charts the conflict between the Indigenous peoples of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. The Nanfan Treaty grants the Haudenosaunee Confederacy the right to hunt in what is now known as South Hills Provincial Park. What happens when the Minister tries to curtail that right? What recourse does the Haudenosaunee Confederacy have to push back against the Minister’s restriction, and can the Minister make that restriction in the first place? Is the Canadian government obligated to uphold the terms of a treaty it signed over three hundred years ago? Should we consider the rights of the deer that are being hunted?

This author confronts these questions with a stunning level of thoroughness and sophistication. They fearlessly take the Crown to task for a series of procedural shortcomings and thoughtless lack of due diligence. The author has taken the time to anticipate possible objections and has addressed them with clarity and confidence. The resulting paper showcases a level of research- driven critical thinking that would be impressive in almost any context (we feel that the author’s work wouldn’t look out of place in a graduate law school seminar or a professional legal journal) and is therefore an even more remarkable achievement for a fourth-year student.

We commend the author for this powerful and thought-provoking paper, and enthusiastically name it our fourth-year winner.