At last, the long-awaited gathering of landowners for their 2023 AGM, arrived. On a cool, somewhat sunny October 21 morning, over 100 people drove through some beautiful countryside to arrive at the Douro Dummer Community Centre situated in this rural county at the crossroads of County Rd 8 and highway 28.
You can watch the OLA AGM on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM8AW9i2-Fs.
Bob Weirmeir, Vice President of the group got the show rolling with the administrative duties of elections. It was a short event. All positions were acclaimed. Jeff Bogaerts will continue as the President, Bob Weirmeir and Donna Burns as the two Vice Presidents, with governors Stefanos Karatopis, Russ Robson, Vaughn Johnstone and new governor, Jean-Serge Brisson. A big thank you from everyone for their continued commitment.
President Jeff Bogaerts gave a detailed summary of what the OLA has been up to. The early years of the landowners were filled with more demonstrations, rallies, protests at Queens Park and Parliament Hill and blockades but those can’t go on forever and new ways of working with government were attempted. The landowners were able to get Randy Hillier and Jack MacLaren elected to Queen’s Park which was a huge accomplishment. Acknowledging that the recent years of inactivity due to Covid and missed meetings has been difficult for everyone, the OLA was able to continue regular zoom meetings with the executive to keep everyone informed. The big news was that the OLA had been asked to be intervenors in two Supreme Court cases involving property rights. That was exciting news and we accepted.
Tom Black and Jack MacLaren, both past presidents of the Ontario Landowners Association gave people a brief description of some of the cases that were successful during their time at the helm. Tom spoke of the two years when the Canada/USA border was closed during the “Mad Cow Crisis” which was the catalyst to bring tractors on the highways. A copy of the cheque that a farmer received showed 2 cents a pound for his 1500-pound cow was just one example of the devastating consequences of that border shutdown. Tom and Jack also had many meetings and standoffs with conservation authorities who seemed to have no appreciation for property rights or the damage their interference in peoples lives, was doing. Jack spoke of rescuing horses up in Manitoulin Island as well as his ordeal in Horton Township where the landowners were supporting a farmer who was concerned about a proposed sewage tank directly across the road from his milk tank. Jack and several other landowners ended up in court for their efforts and the charges were eventually dropped because no one could prove “who put the bale of hay across the door of the township”. Those were definitely interesting, exciting, unpredictable and occasionally dangerous years but there was a farm friendly media in those days and landowner photos in the papers were almost a weekly event.
Tony Kaluzny and Joan Olech were next and were there to inform us of their combined efforts and frustrations in their Crown Patent Court case. It was obvious from their ordeal in getting the courts to acknowledge our rights, that no one in authority was prepared to open that door and so we soldier on, recognizing that our land was granted to us by the King, through our Crown Land grants with rights that were written down. The problem is that there are many bureaucratic organizations that think they have rights over our land and have made it their mission to exercise those false rights by writing and passing a long list of bylaws to legalize theft. The old saying holds, “If you don’t know your rights, you don’t have any”.
Liz Marshall, researcher for the OLA explained how the municipalities have been walking over people without following the laws that are in place for counselors and mayors to follow. She talked about the Municipal Act and how it has to be read in its entirety to understand the limitations put on mayors/ counselors to make laws. They cannot pass laws that interfere with another law. Liz has written a book, Property Rights 101 which goes into great detail about where we got our rights from, what our rights and responsibilities are and the erosion of our rights. She is a wealth of knowledge and has recognized that many town councils are passing bylaws that would not stand up in court. The problem with that is the high cost of fighting in court against government.
After lunch we were introduced to Maggie Hope Braun, founder of Gather 2030 which is a community-based organization of people working with their municipalities. She was very concerned about the signing onto the UN Agenda 21 in 1992 and feels that we need to be aware of other influences that are changing our lives and not for the better.
Tom Marazzo, our final speaker is a retired member of the armed forces and who was often the face on television speaking to the cameras to update them on the Trucker’s Convoy. After retirement from the armed forces, he taught at a Community College until September 2021 when he was fired for questioning the legality of the vaccine mandates. He saw first hand what the law will do to people who aren’t in step with the government agenda. He has written a book, The People’s Emergency Act, Freedom Convoy 2022 which is available on Amazon. Tom now says that he divides his workload or objectives into 3 boxes but focuses on changing those situations that he has control of and tries not to get too involved in events that he can not control.
The event wrapped up with a question and answer period with all speakers at the front ready to hear the concerns and questions from people in the audience. It was a great end to a super day.