Recently, myself and some friends decided to spend a day snowmobiling with our children in the Bear Lake area. While we were unloading, a conservation officer (CO) vehicle entered the parking area. The CO's parked their vehicle, approached us and started asking questions regarding hunting and stated that there was some wolf and coyote shootings in the area and after a brief questioning and visual inspection they returned to their vehicle, I guess realizing we were not hunting or fishing.
We jumped on our sleds and one CO emerged from his vehicle again with his partner and started questioning my friend about his children riding snowmobiles that, in his opinion, were too large for their own safety. Kevin indicated that his boys had an extensive amount of hours on these machines and that we all felt confident that in no way whatsoever was he compromising their safety as we had all ridden with them before. At this point the CO stated that he would not allow the boys to ride the sleds and that if, in fact, they did ride off with their father they would have his truck and trailer impounded for non-compliance. This made all of us extremely angry, and the boys in question will most likely be snowmobile racers within the next few years as was their father, but in the CO's mind he knew what was best for the boys.
The CO ordered my friend to produce his drivers license and that he would be receiving a ticket for allowing his children to ride snowmobiles that were too large for their own safety according to the warning on the sled. (The safety warning is a recommendation not a strict rule and after further investigation this does not fall under a CO's jurisdiction for authority anyway).
My friend reloaded his sleds into his trailer and produced his drivers license to the CO. The CO and his partner would not leave the scene until Kevin and his boys had headed on down the Highway.
Do people in uniform (without children) really know more about how to raise and protect a child than a child's own parents?
Can our judicial system not try and hunt down criminals in lieu of harassing and cashing in on hard working citizens?
This is just another case of abuse of authority, but who knows, maybe the CO had his training with the RCMP at Vancouver Airport.
Good thing we didn't get tasered.
Craig Christie
Prince George
