MAN CAUGHT WITH POT CAN KEEP ON HUNTING

A British Columbia man who received a conditional sentence after
pleading guilty to possessing 160 pounds of marijuana will be allowed
to keep hunting even though the Criminal Code imposes a 10-year
prohibition of owning and possessing firearms.

Jerry Lambert, of Chilliwack, B.C., didn't object to any of the
sentencing conditions that Justice Murray Sinclair imposed on him
yesterday. But Lambert responded when Sinclair told him he couldn't
own or possess a firearm for 10 years.

Lambert is Metis and routinely hunts to provide food for his family
but the weapons prohibition would have put an end to that for the next
10 years. Sinclair told Lambert that he could hunt but he couldn't
keep the weapons at his home when he's not hunting.

But Sinclair, himself an aboriginal person, told Lambert that as a
Metis he has a right to hunt and he'd be willing to allow him to
continue to hunt if he could provide the court with the name of an
individual who would keep his weapons when he's not hunting.

When Lambert couldn't think of anyone who could safely keep his
weapons for him, Sinclair said a name wasn't necessary so long as it
was someone legally allowed to possess weapons.

Lambert had been pulled over by the RCMP on the Trans-Canada Highway
near Headingley in February 2004 when they found the marijuana hidden
in his pickup truck. Sinclair gave Lambert a $5,000 fine and a
conditional sentence of two years less a day. Court was told that
Lambert had a strong letter of reference from his employer, a scrap
metal dealer in B.C., and that Lambert had no previous criminal record.

Lambert's lawyer and the Crown attorney's office had agreed on a joint
recommendation to Sinclair.

Sinclair also ordered Lambert to give up his truck and about $1,700 in
cash that police found on him at the time of his arrest.