The Ontario Land Owners (OLO) are a rural lobby group set-up to"... preserve and protect the rights of property owners and to enshrine property rights within the Constitution of Canada and the laws of the Province of Ontario." On the provincial level, MPP Randy Hillier is a founding member; federally, they are associated with Tory MP for Lanarck Scott Reid. Lately, the group has become quite taken with the concept of land grants, or letters patent , which they seem to feel give a landowner possessing one of these contracts some kind of absolute property rights to their land:
"There is not one piece of legislation, there is not one order in council that can overrule your contract with the Crown because it is based on contract law."
In any case, the OLO recently wrote to a number of Ottawa-region politicians extolling the virtues of these land patents, often delivering these letters to their private residences. The response has been negative:
Article from the Renfrew Mercury Thursday July 29-2010
‘Scary’ OLA letter received for information only
Ontario Landowners Association is distributing personal letters to local heads of council that have some councillors concerned.
At council’s July 22 regular meeting, Admaston-Bromley Councillor Sandra Crozier described the letter – which was delivered to Mayor Raye-Anne Briscoe’s home in an envelope labelled ‘private and confidential’ – as “just too scary.”
[...]
The OLA held a meeting in Eganville recently on the patents issue. More meetings are expected to be held in other communities to inform the public about their property rights. The OLA letter advises council that any violation of the Crown Land Patent Act “will be met with as much force as necessary to affect our purpose of upholding and enforcing those laws, rights and privileges.”
This is not, incidentally, the first time folks within the landowners movment have threatened violence.
I'm sure Harper will take up their cause any day now. He loves fellow bullies.
ReplyDeleteThese people sound like the inbred types like the NRA nutbars in the US
Ideology
ReplyDeleteReid describes himself as more libertarian than conservative, and holds a combination of civil libertarian and socially conservative views.
The way of life of these folks is going the way of the Do-Do and they are fighting tooth and nail to try to hang on to it as long as they can. They will not succeed.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at the last few Censuses of Agriculture and you will see a steady decline in the number of farms in this country.
The family farm is a dying breed, being taken over by large, corporate farm operations, and these folks do not like it.
Of course these folks will not be able to stop this trend no matter what as it is the children of these farmers who have decided not to carry on the family business. They would prefer to receive a few million from a farm corporation and buy a nice house in the suburbs of a major city.
These folks cannot change this trend, they know it and it makes them angry. Since they cannot direct their anger at their own children they direct it at a more convenient scapegoat, the government and in this case all government.
Ain't it funny how these rural conservative welfare bums have no problem expropriating the property of others through perpetual farm subsidy programs?
ReplyDeleteDon't these folks know that the proper way to get their message out is to smash business storefronts, torch police cars and make false claims of police brutality? And then demand a public inquiry?
ReplyDeleteThe urban left could give these folks some lessons on how to threaten the public and government while sticking taxpayers with a $1,000,000,000 bill.
Believe me, Paul, Randy Hillier has thoroughly absorbed that message.
ReplyDeletePaul S the urban left could probably also give some lessons on how to keep security within budget and reason.
ReplyDelete