Shooting death on Nova Scotia’s Big Tancook Island a hunting accident: RCMP

Oct 31, 2016 | 10:30 AM

BIG TANCOOK ISLAND, N.S. — A deer hunter shot dead on a South Shore island was Nova Scotia’s first hunting-related death since 2005, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

The unidentified 52-year-old man from Halifax was killed Friday in what police now say was an accident on Big Tancook Island — a location only accessible by ferry from Chester, N.S. 

RCMP Cpl. Dal Hutchinson said Monday police had ruled out foul play as part of their ongoing investigation.

“This is being considered a hunting accident, therefore we are not looking at this unfortunate incident as a homicide,” said Hutchinson.

Hutchinson said police were still looking at possible firearms-related charges.

“That is something that investigators are going to look at to determine if any charges are warranted here,” he said.

RCMP have said two men were hunting deer on Friday when one was shot and killed. Police said the men knew each other but were not hunting together.

The Mounties said the man believed to have fired the gun called police to report the incident and has been co-operating with the investigation.

He was released from custody after being interviewed by investigators.

Sandra Fraser, the hunter education coordinator for Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources, said the last hunting-related fatality in Nova Scotia was in 2005, in an incident that involved illegal hunting.

“We do track trends and I can say that since 1986 we’ve had fewer than 10 hunting incidents a year,” said Fraser. “We introduced mandatory hunter education in 1978 and mandatory hunter orange in 1986, so we have seen a decline since those two changes.”

Fraser said new hunters who want to use a gun must complete the Canadian firearm safety course for non-restricted weapons and take a hunter safety course before going into the woods.

“Overall it’s a safe activity and it’s rare for an incident to involve non hunters,” she said.

The department said it didn’t have hard figures on the number of incidents that have led to police charges, a statistical area that the Canada Safety Council says appears to be lacking nation-wide.

Council spokesman Lewis Smith said there appears to have been a recent spike in deaths due to a lack of safe firearm practices.

The council highlighted the issue as recently as October 2012 after a string of fatalities, including two in British Columbia and one each in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario.

Smith said the more serious incidents often boil down to a lack of awareness of basic safety tenets such as wearing orange to be visible and keeping weapons locked and unloaded until they are needed for use.

“All that seems to be fairly common sense but . . . common sense isn’t necessarily all that common,” said Smith. “In the vast majority of these cases these issues would not happen with additional education and additional awareness. “

Smith said the council’s most recent statistical information dates back to 2011, a year in which 679 Canadians died in shootings.

He said that roughly three per cent, or about 20 fatalities, were the result of accidental discharges of the type that may occur in hunting accidents, although there are no hard numbers on how many hunters were victims.

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press