The Manitoba Metis Federation is calling on the provincial government to look into an alleged forging of a confession for three men charged with nighthunting near Lundar in 2015.

Two of the men involved are Metis and are harvesters, Mitchel Lestrat and Jordan Thorsteinson. They denied the charges and have since been acquitted. The signed confession had supposedly come from Thorsteinson, but the MMF says it hired a handwriting expert who analyzed the signature and came to the conclusion someone other than Thorsteinson had written it.

A news conference was held yesterday in which MMF president David Chartrand said they're demanding an investigation.

 

 

The MMF says the Crown withdrew the confession as evidence when the case came to trial last month.

Lestrat says he will remain in Lundar, where he and Thorsteinson have served as volunteer firefighters, but their names have been run through the dirt.

 

Thorsteinson is currently working in Newfoundland. His mother, Susie, told reporters no one would be hiring him at home.

Sustainable development minister Cathy Cox said the first she'd heard of the alleged forging was yesterday; she did not commit to an investigation, saying she didn't want to "pre-judge" when there may be further court processes to come.

 

 

Cox says conservation officers follow a code of conduct and are responsible for ensuring they're fair, and there would be serious concerns and follow-up if conservation officers were found not to be following those ethics.