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August 26, 2019 - 7:00 PM
A B.C. conservation officer who made headlines in 2015 after being suspended for refusing to euthanize two bear cubs has lost his last attempt to have a court intervene.
Hired as a conservation officer in 2013, Bryce Casavant was suspended with pay after he refused to euthanize two cubs following a citizen’s complaint that they were eating food from a freezer at a Port Hardy mobile home. Casavant euthanized the sow, but tranquilized the cubs and brought them to a veterinarian before they were released into the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association. They were later successfully released into the wild.
Following his suspension, Casavant was transferred to another position with the Ministry of Forests, Land, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. A petition last updated in January 2016 drew more than 300,000 supporters and urged then B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak to reinstate Casavant.
Casavant, however, has been fighting the issue in court. Through his union, he initially accepted a settlement and moved to a new position, but after receiving more information, he has twice tried to persuade a B.C. Supreme Court judge to intercede and set aside the agreement. In an Aug. 23, 2019 decision, Justice Heather McNaughton dismissed his latest attempt.
Casavant was also the NDP candidate for Oak Bay-Gordon Head in the 2017 provincial election. He currently works as a Special Provincial Constable with the Province of B.C. in a senior law enforcement role.
— The headline on this story was corrected at 9:55 a.m. June 5, 2020. An earlier version said it was his "last shot it court" but in June 2020, he won an appeal.
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