Chris Selley: Provinces don’t need the notwithstanding clause to stomp on our Charter rights

A man hikes along a trail at Crystal Crescent Beach on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. Photo by Yuan Wong/The Chronicle Herald

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In August of last year, the Nova Scotia government enacted a ban on going into the woods — any woods, anywhere on public property, for any reason — on pain of a $25,000 fine, because of extreme wildfire risk. To many Canadians, it seemed more than a bit bonkers on its face, never mind taking into account the exceptions.

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On Friday, Justice Jamie S. Campbell of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia found the policy to have been unreasonable, arguing the province’s then natural resources minister, Tony Rushton, failed to consider Canadians’ constitutionally protected mobility rights.

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Another exception was the forestry industry, which was issued “blanket travel permits” — even as some operators opted to down tools, the Halifax Examiner reported, for fear their heavy machinery might start a fire. So, it was crucial for everyone in Nova Scotia to alter their lives for the greater good … but not if it impacted commerce.

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There were also no restrictions on walking through the woods on your own private land, but on no account could you have guests over for a ramble. That would be dangerous.

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The ban seemed to be popular, and many Nova Scotians passionately defended it, in the same way many Maritimers stridently defended the “Atlantic Bubble” during the pandemic — later upheld by the Supreme Court as a reasonable infringement on mobility rights — against similar criticisms.

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“My sense is that Nova Scotians will mostly think (the ban is) a good idea because if you ban only risky activities … that gives people a licence to go in the woods and … do stupid goddamn things in the woods and then we’ll have a fire,” Nova Scotian journalist Stephen Maher told The Hub, and by and large he was proven right.

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“My riding had 20,000 people evacuated two years ago, 300 homes burned and by sheer luck no one died. Fire burn restrictions were on then,” former Conservative MP Rick Perkins (South Shore—St. Margarets) wrote on social media. “And while houses burned people still set illegal outdoor fires.”

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“And yes people walking and littering cause fires,” Perkins added. “The two fires that burned 300 homes were man-made fires that spread during a ban. I don’t want to see that happen again this summer. Go to the beach instead.”

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(For the record, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald provided the following examples of how “walking and littering” might cause a fire: “metal walking poles … could make contact with a rock, causing a spark”; and “tossing, breaking or uncovering a glass (or plastic) bottle may produce a lens effect that focuses the sun’s rays and starts a fire.” Feel free to roll your eyes.)