The Ontario government says they are safeguarding deer by ensuring hunters use valid tags. 

Four men and one woman from Bancroft have been convicted of a range of licence tag-related offences and fined a total of $24,500, as the result of an investigation into the over-harvest of white-tailed deer. 

Violations included, failing to tag a deer killed by an apprentice hunter, possessing and using copies of a deer tag and hunting without a licence, as well as hunting big game without a licence. 

The court heard that in early November of last year, hunters had tagged deer using copies of tags or tags that ought to have been used previously. Collectively between three members of the group, they possessed seven additional copies of their tags.