Richard Dawson Smith with a big Yukon bull | BND Productions
A British Columbia hunter is hauling the province's Conservation Officer Service to court, alleging that a 2022 Facebook post defamed him by misrepresenting a court sentencing order and causing significant damage to both his reputation and his business.
Richard Dawson Smith, owner of BND Productions and an author of other hunting-related content including a book, filed a notice of civil claim on December 2nd, in Prince George Supreme Court. As part of his filing, he is suing the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, the BC Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS), and four unnamed conservation officers for defamation. Smith is seeking damages exceeding $800,000, plus a court order to remove or correct the offending post.
The case traces back to November 2020, when Smith pleaded guilty to hunting on cultivated land— an offense under Section 39 of B.C.'s Wildlife Act. This prohibits hunting or trapping on or over private agricultural land (such as crop fields, orchards, or grazed pastures) without the landowner's consent.
In December 2022, Provincial Court Judge Oliver Fleck sentenced Smith to a $1,200 fine and ordered him to retake the Conservation Outdoor Recreation Education (CORE) course, the province’s mandatory hunter safety and ethics program. Critically, the order, negotiated with the Crown, tied the CORE requirement to Smith's eligibility to hunt after March 31, 2023.
Just days after sentencing, on December 22, 2022, BCCOS posted on Facebook stating that Smith and another hunter "are required to retake the CORE course before they are able to hunt again." Smith alleges this was misleading, implying an immediate hunting ban that did not exist in the actual court order.
The post was republished by media outlets, further amplifying its reach. Smith claims it branded him a "poacher" in the eyes of the hunting community, leading to harassment, exclusion from private hunting groups on social media, and demands from retailers to remove his book from shelves.
Smith’s Publication
In late December 2022, Smith later hunted and harvested a lynx — an action he believed was legal under the original order, but was later charged with violating the court order.
However, in January 2024, Judge Cassandra Malfair acquitted him, ruling that the original sentencing had been misspoken or misinterpreted. Malfair criticized BCCOS for drafting and submitting an amended order to Judge Fleck in September 2023 without notifying Smith, rendering the amendment procedurally invalid.
Smith had complained to BCCOS about the Facebook post in February 2023, but Deputy Chief Chris Doyle dismissed it the following month.
Smith's civil claim accuses BCCOS of deliberately misleading the public to harm his reputation among fellow hunters.
“BCCOS illegally changed wording on a court order to match a narrative and then took that to trial,” Smith’s Dec. 2 lawsuit alleged. “The conduct by the defendant(s) falls outside the statutory provisions authorizing, falls outside the code of conduct or alternatively was in excess of activities and was intended to harm and victimize Smith.”
As of publication, the defendants have not filed a response to the claim, and the allegations so far remain unproven in court.
