{"id":130273,"date":"2025-08-08T23:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T23:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130273\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T23:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T23:27:12","slug":"group-threatens-n-s-with-legal-action-over-grossly-disproportionate-woods-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130273\/","title":{"rendered":"Group threatens N.S. with legal action over \u2018grossly disproportionate\u2019 woods ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A national advocacy group is threatening Nova Scotia with legal action over its decision to restrict travel in the woods, a policy that Premier <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/tim-houston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Houston<\/a> said was necessary to blunt a brutal wildfire season.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Constitution Foundation, which supports legal challenges across the country generally relating to Charter rights, is behind the legal threat, which claims Nova Scotia has overstepped.<\/p>\n<p>The group said it supports a provincial burn ban, but Houston\u2019s prohibition on hiking, camping, fishing and picnicking in the woods is a step too far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re creating a culture where we value safety above any other value, including our fundamental freedoms, our freedom to move around our communities,\u201d Christine Van Geyn, the CCF\u2019s litigation director, told Global News.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/national.jpg\" alt=\"Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get the day&#8217;s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd when you put safety, when you describe everything as a safety issue, it means everything can be controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The CCF has formally written to Houston\u2019s government, urging it to rescind the travel restriction or face legal action. A petition in support of removing the ban gained more than 2,000 signatures in just 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve heard from a few people about their ability to actually access work,\u201d Van Geyn said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo some people will take a route where they don\u2019t have access to transit, and they might not have a vehicle. So they take their bikes through a forested trail to get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<ul class=\"l-inlineStories__posts c-posts c-posts--inline \">\n<li class=\"c-posts__item\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11320440\/air-canada-flight-attendants-vote-strike-timeline\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Air-Canada-August-6.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tAir Canada flight attendants have voted to strike. What comes next?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"c-posts__item\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11323701\/canadian-armed-forces-mark-carney-defence-announcement\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4b3ed0dfc342ab5dd5b2f8f860b59cd50dd537c21b2291ca32786fadeb84ba58.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tCanada to boost military pay as much as 20% in \u2018significant\u2019 spending hike\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At the same time, Nova Scotia\u2019s tip line to report people breaking the rules has been overwhelmed with calls. The fine for those caught in the woods is $25,000.<\/p>\n<p>That fine, the CCF said, is \u201cgrossly disproportionate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Nova Scotia\u2019s Department of Natural Resources defended its prevention measures and said they were allowed under the Forests Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are making decisions that are in the best interest of Nova Scotians. Our province is the second most densely populated in the country,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThat means wildfire is a greater risk to our people and our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A national advocacy group is threatening Nova Scotia with legal action over its decision to restrict travel in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":130274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,5025,50,79299,80,79300,5609],"class_list":{"0":"post-130273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-fire","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-nova-scotia-forest-ban","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-tim-houston","14":"tag-wildfires"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114995740360261296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}