{"id":417218,"date":"2026-04-29T21:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T21:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/417218\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T21:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T21:14:22","slug":"what-counts-as-the-woods-judge-axes-nova-scotias-ban-that-defied-commonsense-definitions-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/417218\/","title":{"rendered":"What counts as the woods? Judge axes Nova Scotia\u2019s ban that defied \u2018commonsense definitions\u2019 | Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

As wildfires raged across Nova Scotia last summer, the Canadian<\/a> province made a simple plea to residents: stay away from the woods.<\/p>\n

As the situation deteriorated, authorities turned the request into a prohibition<\/a>: anyone caught hiking under the shade of the forest canopy faced a C$25,000 fine \u2013 a figure more than half the average worker\u2019s yearly salary.<\/p>\n

But exactly the emergency rules considered to be \u201cthe woods\u201d was a challenge better suited to a philosopher than a confused hiker in a parking lot. Rock barrens, scrubland or marshes were all considered \u201cwoods\u201d. So too was forest \u2013 but the presence of actual trees wasn\u2019t necessary, just evidence they had once been there. Residents could still travel as long as it wasn\u2019t \u201cany great distance\u201d through the woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone who wanted to stay out of the woods had to put in some interpretive effort,\u201d a judge recently declared<\/a>. \u201cThe government just wanted people to use common sense. But the ban seemed to defy commonsense definitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, that same judge found the controversial ban wasn\u2019t just confounding, it also violated Canada\u2019s charter of rights and freedoms. And while the Nova Scotia supreme court acknowledged the urgency of the wildfire crisis, it warned that if individual rights aren\u2019t protected, \u201cthey can be eroded in a way that eventually affects everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n

The chain of events, which ended in a scathing critique <\/a>of government overreach, began last summer when the province was engulfed in flames. In July, Tim Houston, a stone-faced provincial premier, told the public that the ban on walking in the woods was \u201cinconvenient\u201d but essential to avoid a repeat of the disastrous 2023 wildfire season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most people adhered to the order. But not Jeffrey Evely, an army veteran who saw an opportunity to challenge the ban. After letting bylaw officers know of his plans, he ventured into the forest in Cape Breton \u2013 and was promptly handed a C$28,872.50 fine.<\/p>\n

Aided by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) \u2013 a libertarian-leaning group that has taken on controversial cases, including an active role in the self-described Freedom Convoy that besieged Ottawa in 2022<\/a> \u2013 Evely and his supporters challenged the fine in court, and won.<\/p>\n

On 17 April, justice Jamie Campbell found the government had violated the mobility rights of Nova Scotians, and failed to weigh the cost of that breach against an attempt to stop the fires. Mobility is a protected right and has previously been called \u201cthe heart of what it means to be a free person\u201d by courts. While governments can infringe or limit that right, courts have long demanded those efforts be taken with \u201creasonable\u201d consideration of the effects.<\/p>\n

But Campbell found this wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the province seemed keen to placate the concerns of industry groups such as forest operators, utilities and telecom companies, issuing permits for them to keep using the woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose responsible for safeguarding \u2026 had to do something. They had to do it quickly and their options were limited,\u201d he wrote. But he nonetheless also warned of the need to protect the rights of individuals.<\/p>\n

Campbell also found the order was \u201cso vague as to be incapable of being interpreted at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing told to stay out of the \u2018woods\u2019 made some sense to people who thought they knew what the woods are,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Nova Scotia\u2019s premier defended his government\u2019s actions during a fast-moving crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did what I thought was necessary as premier to support our firefighters, to keep people safe, to keep property safe, and that was the woods ban,\u201d Houston said this week. \u201cThat was completely appropriate in those circumstances, in that moment, based on the information I had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marty Moore, the legal counsel for the JCCF, said the decision, which was \u201cegg on the face of the government\u201d, would probably deter others from pursuing similar measures. The JCCF takes on cases it believes are government overreach against free expression, religious freedom and individual liberty. It has also taken on controversial cases that centre on culture-war debates over gender identity and human rights law.<\/p>\n

For Moore, the case echoed themes of pandemic restrictions his organization actively fought. But he said the case also had deep roots \u2013 \u201call the way to the Magna Carta in England and the Charter of the Forest from 1271<\/a>\u201d- which granted rights to common people to use the forests.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless you\u2019ve been to Nova Scotia and touched the forest there, it\u2019s hard to understand the impact of what the travel ban looks like,\u201d he said. \u201cNova Scotia is the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was amended on 25 April 2026. An error introduced during editing meant an earlier version said the Freedom Convoy besieged Toronto in 2022; the intended reference was to Ottawa. This has been corrected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As wildfires raged across Nova Scotia last summer, the Canadian province made a simple plea to residents: stay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-417218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}