Richard Bell
Eastern Shore Cooperator
August 23, 2020

Full Article Here>

Opponents of the proposed sale of Owls Head Provincial Park to an American billionaire took the next legal step forward on August 18 with the filing of an amended version of their January request for a judicial review. A hearing to set a date for the full judicial review will take place on September 23, although the trial itself will probably not take place until 2021.

The amended petition challenges two different secret decisions by Lands and Forestry Minister Iain Rankin:  the decision to de-list the park on March 13, 2019 and the decision to entertain a Letter of Offer with the golf course developer on December 19, 2019.

… In their petition, the applicants’ first major claim is that Lands and Forest Minister Iain Rankin breached “procedural fairness” in several ways, such as failing to provide notice to the public that he was considering the delisting and Letter of Offer, or holding any public consultation on the two matters.

The second claim is that Rankin’s decisions on delisting of the park and the signing of the Letter of Offer were “unreasonable” because he failed “to provide justification” for his decisions.

The applicants are asking the court to send the decision to de-list the park and to enter into a Letter of Offer to sell the land back to the Minister of Lands and Forestry “to be remade in consideration of this Honourable Court’s decision.”

Read the full article on the Eastern Shore Cooperator’s website


Editor’s Note: If you missed Justice Coady’s decision in part 1 of the case, you can read all about the request for a time extension here.

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