Five Quebec men pleaded guilty to both federal and provincial illegal hunting charges in Moose Jaw provincial court yesterday. The two year investigation culminated in 47-thousand-6-hundred-70 dollars in fines. The investigation sparked up in 2016 but it was the two week surveillance operation in October 2017 that sealed the hunters’ fate. Officers collected evidence that the hunters were wasting migratory birds, illegally hunting big game animals and shooting protected species.

41 year old Patrick Lebouef, 39 year old Stephane Dubuc, 55 year old Christian Leduc, 43 year old Martin Gendron, 32 year old Jean-Philippe Quesnel faced a total of 65 federal and provincial charges. The illegal hunting primarily took place in the Moose Jaw and Parkbeg areas. All five received a five-year provincial hunting suspension and one year federal hunting suspensions. Hunting equipment and firearms were seized during the investigation.