A man from Midland Ontario has been fined a total of CAD 22,500 (USD 21,839) for failure to comply with a court order under section 79(6) of the Fisheries Act.

A CAD 7,500 (USD 7,279) fine was handed down to William Jesse Sutherland for each of three counts under the Act. The charges were related to a court order on an earlier conviction under Section 35(1) of the Fisheries Act, relating to the “harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat.”

When Sutherland failed to meet the conditions of the court order, the Crown moved forward with additional charges related to failure to comply.

The original offence occurred on an unnamed watercourse immediately upstream of Little Lake in the Township of Striker, northeast of Blind River, Ontario. In the summer of 2002, Sutherland was investigated for installing a culvert in the watercourse and placing fill material in the watercourse and adjacent wetland. The area covere...  (More Info)