The Crown has stayed charges against a group of people who were found to be trespassing when they went ice fishing on Corbett Lake back in January.
The lake, located just south of Merritt, is said to be surrounded by private property, but members of the Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club — who were amongst the 10 people issued tickets — said they crossed over an area that is public land in order to get to the lake, and therefore were not trespassing.
RCMP Sgt. Norm Flemming told the Herald the Crown recommended the charges be stayed because the cost-benefit wasn’t enough to warrant proceeding, and it would be more efficient to stay the charges as a warning.
He said the Crown would have been more inclined to act on a mischief charge, had that been the case.
“The issuance of a stay is the opportunity to provide the people [a] warning, they don’t have to pay a fine and they now know that if the Crown is going to proceed on that, it’s going to be in the criminal form,” Flemming said.
He said that is something he’s hoping to avoid, and that a proper legal means to resolve this issue would be to present the case for a public right of access in civil court.
Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club director Rick McGowan, who was one of the charged fishermen told the Herald their venture onto Corbett Lake was done to show that people in the Nicola Valley are upset they’re being prohibited from a public lake.
Earlier this month, Flemming informed the fishermen the charges had been stayed, but McGowan said four of them attended court to be sure that was the case.
“I know from experience that if you don’t show up [to court], and it said right on the ticket, they’re going to deem you guilty, so I didn’t want to give them that opportunity,” McGowan said.
Flemming said all the research he and fellow officers with the Merritt RCMP detachment have done suggests there isn’t public access as the entire lake is surrounded by private land, and therefore accessing it is considered trespassing.
Corbett Lake is surrounded by three landowners — the Corbett Lake Lodge, the Douglas Lake Cattle Company and Nicola Ranch.
McGowan said the lake is public and believes these companies are illegally blocking public access, which he said exists behind a berm near the shore.
“It’s not over. We will be going back [to fish] and I hope everybody else does,” McGowan said.
Charges that are stayed in court are essentially dropped — the difference is they can be brought back to court.
While this option exists for the Crown, Flemming said it is an unlikely option in this case.
“They can always bring stayed charges back, but they’re going to have to prove that we have no right to go to a public lake to do that,” McGowan said.
He said the Fish and Game Club is trying to determine how to deal with this issue and hopes to discuss it with Fraser-Nicola MLA and the Ministry of Transportation.
“We have to go ahead with this. We’re not going to give up on it,” McGowan said.
Correction: This article originally incorrectly stated that Rick McGowan was the Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club’s president. The Herald regrets the error.
