#muncey

“Two Years in Prison For Thirty-dollar Theft,” Kingston Whig-Standard. February 8, 1933. Page 11.  ---- LONDON, Ont. Feb., 6. - Theft of food and clothing to the value of approximately $30 brought a term of two years in Kingston Penitentiary for Peter Martin and six months determinate to Guelph Reformatory for Stafford Smith, both residents of Muncey Reserve, when they appeared before County Magistrate Hawkshaw for sentence.

“Traffic Act To Be Tested,” Border Cities Star. January 22, 1931. Page 12. ---- Lawyer Says Regulation Not Applicable To Muncey Area -- LONDON, Ont., Jan. 22. 0 The Muncey Indian reserve will likely be the scene of a test case which will affect all Crown lands in Ontario as the result of a claim made in county police court this week that provincial statutes do not run in an Indian reserve.

TO LAY CHARGE Police are preparing to lay a charge against Fred Wadilove, Muncey Indian, under the Highway Traffic Act. If Eric Moorhouse, local lawyer, is right in his contention that provincial laws cannot be applied on the reserve then all Indians while in their own territory will be able to ignore the Highway Traffic Act, the Liquor Control Act, the Game and Fisheries Act and other laws passed by the province.

If the Highway Traffic Act alone does not apply to the Indians, they will be able to drive automobile on the reserve without licenses or drivers’ permits, without lights, brakes, horns, and at any speed they can go. They could not be charged with reckless driving or any other offense under the Highway Traffic Act. FIRST STEP WON Mr. Moorhouse won his first step in the battle against the provincial laws, when Wadilove appeared in county police court. The lawyer claimed the county magistrate has no power to try a case arising out of an accident which occurred on the reserve. The court agreed with him on this point and the case was transferred to the Indian agent’s court at Muncey.