Juno News - August 07, 2025


Nova Scotians banned from hiking in forests

Topics
Nova Scotia fined for entering forests illegal immigration into Quebec
Hosted by
Isaac Lamoureux
Mentioned
Harold McQuaker Nova Scotia Roxham Road Sergeant Charles Poirier Miguel Beijing Dogin Alakis Firat Yuksek Karen Dawson Tim Houston Emo Ontario
Majority of immigrants not making payments on gov loans Nova Scotia premier put on notice over forest ban

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

159.52

Word count

1,769

Sentence count

85

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Nova Scotians could now face fines of up to $25,000 if they set foot in a forest, even if it s on their own private property. Three men are facing smuggling charges after police in southern Quebec intercepted a truck carrying 44 illegal migrants in dangerous conditions. A leading Canadian civil rights group is set to intervene in a case which saw a town and its mayor fined for voting against using an LGBT activist group s Pride Month declaration.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Nova Scotians could now face fines of up to $25,000 if they set foot in a forest,
00:00:10.340 even if it's on their own private property.
00:00:12.900 Three men are facing smuggling-related charges after Quebec police intercepted 44 illegal immigrants
00:00:19.080 in dangerous conditions at Quebec's southern border.
00:00:22.440 A leading Canadian civil rights group is set to intervene in a case which saw a town and its mayor
00:00:27.740 fined for voting against using an LGBT activist group's Pride Month's declaration.
00:00:33.520 Hello Canada, it's Thursday, August 7th, and this is the True North Daily Brief.
00:00:37.780 I'm Isaac Lamoureux.
00:00:39.240 And I'm Jeff Knight.
00:00:40.400 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.
00:00:43.020 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:52.020 Nova Scotians have been ordered to stay out of their own forests 1.00
00:00:55.660 or face fines of up to $25,000.
00:00:58.880 Simply stepping into the woods, even on private land, is now banned by the provincial government
00:01:04.020 with similar penalties to breaching a fire ban.
00:01:07.500 The announcement by Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston covered activities deemed not necessary,
00:01:13.160 including hiking, camping, fishing, and using off-road vehicles during a dry spell
00:01:18.580 with conditions that could spark wildfires.
00:01:21.320 Houston announced Tuesday that a ban on stepping into the woods
00:01:24.100 is now in effect across the whole province, along with other fire restrictions.
00:01:29.580 Effective 4 p.m. today, we're telling Nova Scotians, stay out of the woods.
00:01:34.600 We are restricting travel and activities that really aren't necessary for most of us.
00:01:42.180 Hiking, camping, fishing, and the use of vehicles in the woods are not permitted.
00:01:47.060 Trail systems through woods are off limits.
00:01:49.900 Camping is allowed, but only in official campgrounds.
00:01:54.440 According to Nova Scotia Forest Notes, about 75% of the province is covered in forest.
00:02:00.160 Houston said, quote,
00:02:01.220 If you're a smoker, for God's sakes, be mindful of where you're butting your butt out.
00:02:06.140 If you don't and you cause a fire, we will hold you accountable.
00:02:09.940 If you have a home or cottage surrounded by a wooded area, we strongly encourage you to stay out of those woods,
00:02:15.780 regardless of where they are.
00:02:17.440 Please don't do anything that could unnecessarily put you, your family, or your neighbours at risk.
00:02:22.440 The measures apply to both provincial crown land and private land.
00:02:25.380 So, Jeff, is the situation in Nova Scotia bad enough to warrant this, and what are some civil liberties advocates saying about this online?
00:02:32.720 Yeah, Isaac, civil liberties advocates online argue this ban infringes on property rights.
00:02:37.960 Critics highlight that fining up to $25,000 for entering private woods, covering so-called unnecessary activities like hiking or fishing,
00:02:45.760 oversteps government authority, especially since the measure applies to crown and private land alike.
00:02:51.060 Some advocates, echoing sentiments on social media platforms, contend that it mirrors authoritarian overreach,
00:02:57.720 with some calling it draconian and questioning why private landowners can't manage their land,
00:03:02.660 given no objective risk threshold is specified beyond Houston's plea.
00:03:06.700 Others worry about the chilling effect on rural livelihoods, for example, fishing or off-roading,
00:03:11.880 with advocates like those on X suggesting it prioritizes safety over individual freedoms,
00:03:16.900 though they acknowledge the wildfire context.
00:03:19.200 The lack of clear exemptions or appeal of processes fuels debate,
00:03:23.200 with some advocating for targeted bans rather than a blanket prohibition,
00:03:27.340 which reflects a tension between public safety and personal liberty.
00:03:33.860 Three men are facing smuggling-related charges after police in southern Quebec intercepted a truck carrying 44 illegal migrants in dangerous conditions.
00:03:42.660 At approximately 2.20 a.m. on Sunday, a cube van was intercepted near Stansted, Quebec.
00:03:47.720 This action followed intelligence received by RCMP and Quebec police officers concerning a potential illegal border crossing involving a significant number of migrants.
00:03:57.100 Inside, officers found dozens of people, including a woman and children, who were visibly distressed.
00:04:02.660 RCMP spokesperson Sergeant Charles Poirier said,
00:04:05.820 There wasn't a lot of air for them to breathe, no one had any water, and with the kids and the tight space, they couldn't sit on the ground.
00:04:13.240 They had to stand.
00:04:14.260 Just horrific conditions, really, that they were basically left in.
00:04:17.680 The majority of the passengers were Haitian nationals, Poirier said.
00:04:21.200 The RCMP's East Border District director, Miguel Beijing, described the circumstances the migrants were discovered in as,
00:04:27.940 quote, crammed into a cube truck without ventilation.
00:04:31.280 Police said none of the migrants appeared to be in immediate medical danger.
00:04:34.920 The CBSA identified the three accused as
00:04:37.240 Ogalkin Mersin, 25,
00:04:39.680 Dogin Alakis,
00:04:41.340 and Firat Yuksek,
00:04:43.560 both 31.
00:04:45.080 The three men are charged with inducing,
00:04:47.240 aiding, or abetting foreign nationals
00:04:49.300 to contravene the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,
00:04:52.280 and with assisting entry into Canada outside of a designated port of entry.
00:04:56.560 So, Isaac, we've been seeing this for a long time in Canada.
00:04:59.280 How common is it for migrants to cross illegally into Quebec from the southern border?
00:05:03.480 Does it happen more in Quebec than other provinces?
00:05:05.800 Yeah, Jeff.
00:05:06.660 Quebec has long been the top destination for irregular migrant crossings into Canada.
00:05:12.040 According to the UN Refugee Agency,
00:05:14.240 in the first three months of 2023,
00:05:16.300 Quebec accounted for 64% of all asylum claims in Canada
00:05:19.960 before new border restrictions under the Safe Third Country Agreement
00:05:23.880 came into effect on March 25th.
00:05:26.240 After that date, its share fell,
00:05:27.980 but it still remained among the highest in the country.
00:05:30.380 One of the primary reasons for that is geography.
00:05:32.840 Quebec shares a long, easily crossable land border with several U.S. states,
00:05:36.680 and until March 2023, it was home to Roxham Road,
00:05:40.180 Canada's busiest unofficial border crossing.
00:05:42.660 Between 2017 and its closure,
00:05:45.160 more than 100,000 people used Roxham Road to enter Canada illegally,
00:05:48.920 with over 95% of those crossings occurring in Quebec during peak years.
00:05:54.100 But even after Roxham Road's closure,
00:05:56.240 recent numbers suggest activity is ramping up again.
00:05:59.080 The St. Bernard de Lacolle border crossing,
00:06:01.640 the nearest legal port of entry,
00:06:03.120 saw a 277% increase in asylum claims this summer compared to last year,
00:06:08.440 according to CBSA data.
00:06:10.140 And the RCMP has also confirmed a, quote,
00:06:12.420 notable increase in illegal entries in southern Quebec,
00:06:14.920 particularly in areas near Stansted,
00:06:17.800 where the recent smuggling case you mentioned occurred.
00:06:20.940 Parliamentary testimony from the House of Commons Immigration Committee
00:06:23.840 also revealed that in 2022,
00:06:26.320 the RCMP intercepted almost 40,000 irregular crossers,
00:06:30.220 averaging 108 per day,
00:06:32.100 with the vast majority occurring in Quebec,
00:06:34.100 again near Roxham Road.
00:06:35.440 And by contrast,
00:06:36.860 crossings in other provinces,
00:06:38.300 like Manitoba and B.C.,
00:06:39.740 have numbers which are much lower,
00:06:41.280 whereas Alberta, Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada
00:06:44.840 and provinces in Atlantic Canada
00:06:46.640 see virtually no illegal crossings,
00:06:49.360 simply because they primarily lack long borders with U.S. access.
00:06:54.140 So yes, Quebec remains by far the top destination
00:06:56.720 for illegal immigration into Canada.
00:06:59.000 And despite Ottawa's efforts to reduce these crossings,
00:07:01.800 the trend appears to be picking back up.
00:07:04.140 A Canadian civil liberties group
00:07:10.140 is set to intervene in a judicial review
00:07:12.480 of an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decision,
00:07:15.860 which led to a small town mayor
00:07:17.280 having his bank account garnished
00:07:19.200 and the municipality being fined.
00:07:21.580 The fines followed the town voting
00:07:23.060 against a Pride organization's proposal
00:07:25.140 that the month of June was Pride Month.
00:07:27.580 The Canadian Constitution Foundation,
00:07:29.820 an independent non-profit civil liberties group,
00:07:31.980 has been permitted to intervene in the case,
00:07:34.140 which saw Emo Ontario Mayor Harold McQuaker's bank account
00:07:37.660 garnished for $5,000
00:07:39.680 after he publicly refused to pay a fine placed on him.
00:07:43.060 The CCF will argue
00:07:44.100 that the bar for limiting free expression in Canada is high
00:07:47.000 and that the tribunal did not consider
00:07:49.080 the mayor's expression rights
00:07:50.440 before fining him for his and the town's
00:07:52.800 quote, discriminatory refusal
00:07:54.580 to adopt the exact verbiage
00:07:56.820 of the LGBT activist group Borderland Pride.
00:08:00.020 The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decided
00:08:02.380 in a November 2024 ruling
00:08:04.220 that McQuaker and the municipality of Emo
00:08:06.040 discriminated against Borderland Pride
00:08:08.400 when it voted 3-2 to not accept
00:08:10.400 the organization's proposed Pride Month proclamation in 2020.
00:08:13.940 The proclamation would have declared
00:08:15.320 that the town recognizes, quote,
00:08:17.220 diversity of sexual orientation,
00:08:19.140 gender identity, and gender expression,
00:08:21.280 represents a positive contribution to society,
00:08:23.540 and is a matter for our community
00:08:24.760 to take pride in, show its support, and celebrate.
00:08:26.760 The town had previously declared
00:08:28.560 other pride proclamations in the past,
00:08:30.980 but during a council meeting in 2020,
00:08:32.980 while debating a pride flag going up
00:08:34.600 and accepting the special interest group's
00:08:36.420 pre-written declaration for the town to proclaim,
00:08:38.980 McQuaker's comments were found to be discriminatory.
00:08:41.580 He said, quote,
00:08:42.440 there's no flag being flown on the other side of the coin.
00:08:45.420 There's no flags being flown for the straight people.
00:08:47.760 The adjudicator in the case,
00:08:49.180 Karen Dawson, awarded Borderland Pride $15,000,
00:08:52.300 $10,000 from the 1,200 taxpayers in the municipality,
00:08:56.600 and $5,000 was eventually garnered
00:08:58.800 out of McQuaker's bank account
00:09:00.320 after he publicly refused to pay the fine.
00:09:02.940 So, Jeff, what are some of the unique arguments
00:09:04.800 the CCF are bringing to this ongoing appeal?
00:09:08.260 Yeah, Isaac, the Canadian Constitution Foundation
00:09:10.560 is bringing several unique arguments
00:09:12.480 to the judicial review
00:09:13.520 of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal's decision
00:09:15.700 against Emo Mayor Harold McQuaker
00:09:17.860 and the municipality,
00:09:19.080 as outlined in their intervention.
00:09:20.940 The CCF argues that the tribunal set
00:09:23.600 an excessively low threshold
00:09:25.180 for limiting free expression
00:09:26.580 under Section 2B of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
00:09:29.880 asserting that McQuaker's comments,
00:09:31.500 for example, noting the absence of flags
00:09:33.460 for straight people,
00:09:34.920 were protected speech,
00:09:36.660 not actionable discrimination.
00:09:38.720 They contend that the tribunal
00:09:40.000 failed to properly balance
00:09:41.420 the mayor's expressive rights
00:09:42.840 against the alleged harm to Borderland Pride,
00:09:45.500 particularly since the town
00:09:46.940 had previously supported Pride proclamations,
00:09:49.260 suggesting the issue was about specific verbiage
00:09:52.240 rather than outright rejection.
00:09:53.600 The CCF highlights the unprecedented nature
00:09:56.800 of garnishing the Quaker's bank account
00:09:58.620 for $5,000
00:09:59.540 and fining the municipality $10,000
00:10:02.180 for a 3-2 council vote,
00:10:04.660 arguing this punitive action
00:10:06.000 oversteps into personal financial punishment
00:10:08.580 without adequate justification.
00:10:11.240 They assert that the tribunal's ruling
00:10:13.100 creates a chilling effect
00:10:14.440 where elected officials may self-censor
00:10:16.880 to avoid personal liability,
00:10:19.060 undermining democratic discourse.
00:10:20.580 Undermining Democratic Discourse
00:10:22.660 The CCF challenges the adjudicator's finding
00:10:25.480 that McQuaker's remarks
00:10:26.600 created a discriminatory environment,
00:10:29.060 arguing that disagreement
00:10:30.060 with a pre-written proclamation
00:10:31.660 does not equate to violating human rights,
00:10:34.480 especially given the lack of intent to harm.
00:10:37.760 This intervention seeks to establish a precedent
00:10:40.260 that protects elected officials' rights
00:10:42.140 to express dissenting views,
00:10:44.120 even on contentious social issues like Pride Month,
00:10:46.920 without facing disproportionate financial penalties.
00:10:49.660 That's it for today, folks.
00:10:54.480 Thanks for tuning in.
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