A week has passed since the Nova Scotia-wide ban on entering the woods came into effect — and some citizens are already testing its limits.
A Cape Breton man’s videos went viral over the weekend after he went to the Department of Natural Resources office in Coxheath and announced he was going to go into the woods in protest.
“I want to challenge this order in court, and the only way to do that is to get the fine,” Jeffrey Evely said in the video. “So I’m not trying to make trouble for you guys, I just want a piece of Tim Houston and I want to be as accommodating and nice as I can be.”
One of the officers replies: “Okay, so I’m ordering you to not.”
“Okay, roger that,” Evely replied in the video.
Evely, who stood as a political candidate for the People’s Party of Canada, received thousands of comments on his videos. Some called his actions a cry for attention, and others were outraged on his behalf.
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“If I defy their orders to go into the woods, then I will be fined,” he explained in his video. “So I’m gonna walk down here… And go into these woods.”
Wayne McKay, a professor at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law, said the way Evely had gone about making the video could harm his defence.
“It’s very clear and explicit both on the video and to the officers that he knows full well that this is a violation and in fact wants to be involved in a violation as a way of making a point,” he told Global News. “So he certainly removed some of his defences.”
The video follows a push from several groups, including the Ecology Action Centre and Dal Legal Aid, to have the ban overturned. The Canadian Constitution Foundation has threatened legal action to have the ban removed.
When Evely exited the woods, he said he was handed a ticket for $28,872.50. The government confirmed a fine had been issued.
A spokesperson for Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources said a man from the eastern region was given a ticket, but did not address the question of his identity.
“Since the wildfire prevention measures were put in place, the Department of Natural Resources has issued six fines to folks violating those measures,” the government said.
McKay suggested it could be hard to make those fines stick.
“My personal feeling is that the government would be able to uphold the law,” he said. “So it’s both a risk to him — on a financial level — and a risk to the general public for that kind of conduct to be widespread.”
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