Legal

Court examines procedural fairness,
‘public interest doctrine’ in fight over parkland’s pending sale

… The written decision notes that if the land “had been formally designated as a provincial park, as was represented to the public,” any change to its status would have been made public knowledge.  

“Ultimately, the government’s own misrepresentation of the status of the lands shielded its actions from scrutiny and allowed purportedly protected lands to be considered for sale, out of the public eye,” wrote the court.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Supreme Court Decision

Bancroft v. Nova Scotia (Lands and Forestry), 2021 NSSC 234 SUPREME COURT OF NOVA SCOTIA Citation: Bancroft v. Nova Scotia (Lands and Forestry), 2021 NSSC 234 Date: 20210726 Docket: Hfx,  No.  496023 Registry: Halifax Between: Robert Bancroft and Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association (Applicants) Nova Scotia Minister of Lands and Forestry and Attorney General of Nova Scotia (Respondents) Read more…

By Save Owls Head, ago

“Why Should I Be the First?”

By Christopher Trider

In Court on April 1, Judge Brothers asked Jamie Simpson to explain:

If Canadian courts were to recognize the public trust doctrine, then future Ministers of Lands & Forestry could more easily be held responsible if they failed to consult the public on critical decisions that appeared to be in violation of the public trust.

So it was not surprising that Judge Brothers asked Simpson to explain, “Why should I be the first judge in Canada” to rely on the public trust doctrine, given the reluctance thus far of other Canadian judges to cite the doctrine. Simpson went through statements of Canadian judges from a series of cases arguing for the benefits of incorporating public interest doctrine into Canadian law; from their perspective, the common law is not a fixed, unchanging entity, but something that has changed over time in order to deal with changes in the world at large.

Owls Head Goes to Court by Richard Bell


I can answer Judge Brothers’s question: because somebody has to be the first.

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By Christopher Trider, ago

RICHARD BELL: Owls Head Goes to Court

The Executive Summary states, “With these changes, the new parks and protected areas system will include: 205 provincial parks.” And “Appendix A: Lands” presented “a complete list of new protected areas, as well as provincial park properties.” The list included 782 properties, listed alphabetically. In position 694, the document lists “Owls Head Provincial Park” as an “existing” park.

What the public was not aware of  was that the province had never gone through the formal process of designating Owls Head Provincial Park as a “park.” And in fact, more than 100 of the other properties in the Plan were in the same undesignated category.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Judicial Review

The Department of Lands and Forestry’s decision to secretly delist Owls Head Provincial Park prompted applicants Bob Bancroft and Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association to take the case to court on behalf of concerned Nova Scotians. This legal case has been generously funded by supporters of the Save Owls Head Read more…

By Save Owls Head, ago