This was the title of the November 23, 2014 episode of Cross Country Checkup with host Rex Murphy. Landowners have long complained about the state of justice in Ontario and, indeed, across the country. We are familiar with the process…
Municipalities and other public bodies are charged with making decisions which have wide-reaching impacts across broad swaths of society. They are often mandated to do so, explicitly or implicitly, in the public interest, and in a free, open, and democratic…
I am starting a new series of articles. I hope the last series was able to remove some of the mystery when appearing in court to answer charges brought against you using the Provincial Offences Act relating to municipal by-laws,…
“It is dangerous to be right in matters where men in authority are wrong,” Voltaire. I received three lawsuits all from the same lawyer and all from members of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). I had options,…
Israel is surprisingly often on the front lines of the free world. It certainly has all the right enemies, from Hitler to the Soviet Union to the Iranian theocracy. And so the question arises: Does it have the right friends?…
On Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, MPP Jack MacLaren rose in the House in Toronto to present a private member’s bill, called The Affordable Electricity Act, # 197. It was a Bill to address the high electricity costs that have plagued…
There is a theory in urban planning that there is an optimum size for a city. Quality of life gets better as the city gets bigger up to the optimum size, and then the problems grow while the benefits do…
The Ontario government reports that 87% of land in Ontario is publicly owned, i.e., Crown Land. The Ontario Landowners Association has, for many years, interpreted this to mean that the remaining 13% was privately owned. However, this figure may be…
It has been an interesting week when it comes to property law. At Pattison Legal Services half of our work is associated with representing clients charged under Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act, seeking remedy via Small Claims (debt collection and tort)…
Many property owners are waking up to the fact that municipalities are including mappings for Natural Heritage Systems (NHS) in their Official Plans. These maps, which can be quite extensive, include large tracts of private property. Once designated, your right…
