MANITOULIN—A date has been set in 2018 for court to hear an appeal in the Paul Skippen case involving the verdict given to the accused in a goose shooting trial.
As has been reported previously, Green Bay farmer Paul Skippen is appealing the charges he was found guilty of in provincial court in October 2016 relating to an incident in which Mr. Skippen shot a Canadian goose outside of hunting season without a permit, and from a roadway.
Mr. Skippen was found guilty on both charges, the unlawful shooting of a Canada goose outside of the hunting period under the Migratory Birds Convention 1995 and unlawfully discharging a firearm in the travelled portion of a right of way for public vehicular traffic.
Justice Darlene Hayden, who presided over the case last fall, imposed a fine of $1,250 plus costs for the firearm charge and $300 plus costs for the goose shooting.
Mr. Skippen’s attorney Brad Allison appealed both the conviction and sentence. The factum (statement of the facts of the case) Mr. Allison filed in court argues that the Crown failed to properly introduce evidence of provincial regulations and the Justice of the Peace participated in producing evidence in that regard. It also notes that the Crown’s theory on the shot from the road was impossible and the reasons for the judgment are inadequate in that respect and that the Justice of the Peace demonstrated bias against Mr. Skippen through the entire trial.
A Gore Bay court date for Mr. Skippen’s appeal has been set for March 23, 2018.
