Photo: Todd Standing

A B.C. sasquatch hunter is suing the province to prove the elusive creature of Canadian myth exists.

Todd Standing filed a lawsuit in Golden last week claiming the province refuses to recognize the existence of the ape-man and is shirking its duty to manage B.C. wildlife.

Standing, a documentary maker who says he has video of the beast, hopes to prove his case in court. The government has 21 days to file a response.

"It blows my mind this species has not been acknowledged yet," Standing told CTV. "They won't look at the evidence."

Standing also claims to have DNA samples and fingerprints of sasquatch.

His goal is to get a government biologist or conservation officer to accompany him on a sasquatch hunt.

Standing has been accused of staging his encounters, but he shrugs off the criticism.

"Of course I have haters. I have people that think they're competing with me because really, the sasquatch community is the sasquatch competition," he said.

Environment Minister George Heyman laughed off the lawsuit on Monday.

"I have heard about it. I'll obviously need to get further briefings on the subject of sasquatches," Heyman said.

– with files from CTV Vancouver