Grizzly Trophy Hunting
In 2017, British Columbia’s newly instated NDP government put an end to the grizzly bear trophy hunt throughout the Canadian province, fulfilling one of its campaign promises.
The decision was largely hailed as a victory. The debate over hunting grizzly bears in the province had long been waged along political and moral lines. For many, the trophy hunters who killed a few hundred bears every year were barbaric.
But some Indigenous communities in the province relied on the income; a single hunt often totaled tens of thousands of dollars in revenue for communities with few options for economic development. For these communities, the issue has not been one of conservation versus decimation but of lost livelihoods and uncertain futures.
