The conservation officer who was fired after refusing to kill two orphaned bear cubs demands to get his job back.
- Bryce Casavant was fired from his post as a conservation officer after refusing to kill two orphaned bear cubs in 2015.
- Although the court ruled he was not violating the law, they did not allow him to return to his job.
- In late February, Casavant filed a lawsuit demanding his post back, plus payment for the last five years, as there was “no lawful basis for the province” to dismiss him.
In 2015, Bryce Casavant was fired from his job as a conservation officer in British Columbia, Canada, for refusing to kill two orphaned bear cubs. His employer dismissed him for not following orders.
But instead of accepting his manager’s drastic decision, as UNILAD reports, Casavant decided to take the issue to court.
Prior to his termination from his position, Casavant had been sent to a mobile home park where a female black bear was spotted rummaging through a freezer of frozen meat and salmon. He was forced to kill the bear under a provincial order. However, he refused to harm the cubs who were found nearby.
Documents at the Court of Appeal stated:
“Instead of complying with the kill order, he took the cubs to a veterinarian who assessed them and transferred them to the North Island Recovery Centre.”
Even though the judge agreed that Casavant had acted within the law when he chose to rescue to cubs, he was not allowed to return to his job.
The former officer’s request for the reactivation of his badge was rejected despite the judge being on his side. Nevertheless, Casavant was not willing to back down.
Nearly six years later, in a lawsuit the former officer filed on February 23, he is again asking his employer to give him his job back. What’s more, Casavant also demands his former boss to pay him for the five years after he fired him.
Additionally, in the filing at the British Columbia Supreme Court, his lawyer demanded a declaration that he was never legally dismissed, as per the Toronto Star. Casavant said:
“I have always maintained that a constable cannot be ordered to kill — it’s an illegal order. Public service policing has been my passion and chosen career path since my early twenties. It is disgraceful and frustrating to be continually denied the ability to immediately return to my post.”
His attorney, Arden Beddoes, added:
“Mr. Casavant simply wants the job which was unlawfully taken from him back. The process that was used to take his job was declared void by the Court of Appeal, so there is no lawful basis for the province to deny him that.”