No right to squat in BC; get off crown land now

by eastvanray | August 26, 2009 at 01:58 pm

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I understand the attgraction of being able to build you home on someone else's land and not pay one red cent for it. And I suspect that if we didn't evict squatters from crown land we would have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of these freeloaders. Next they would demand we service their stolen land and deliver mail to them on their squat. This situation would not even garner a second thought if they tried to do this on private land, say on YOUR private land. They would be removed immediately. They had to know what they were doing was not permitted but they did it anyway. They gave us BC taxpayers who own that land the finger and ignored the fact that what they were doing was illegal. It is tresspassing. And the tresspass is against us. I am glad our government is enforcing the law and forcing them off our property. Maybe this couple can apply for social housing but they can't just take our land and use it as they please. If anyone wants to champion their squatting cause I will assume that you will also walk the walk and allow them to squat on YOUR propertry.

It has taken Tony Smith two years to build his cabin.

He dragged the logs from the bush with a yoke and the strength of his legs. Then he and his wife Judy lifted each one of the 1,000-pound beasts into place with an old boat winch.

For the couple, the cabin will be a massive improvement from the nine-by-12-foot canvas-wall prospector's tent they have lived in on Greenstone Mountain for the past two years.

"It will be nice to have a wall that doesn't move," Smith said, looking every bit the proud craftsman. "This is my home."

But it sits on Crown land.

Smith said it was like being kicked in the chest when two government workers showed up Sunday evening and told him he had 30 days to tear it down.

The two officials, a conservation officer and a compliance officer with B.C.'s Integrated Land Management Bureau, rolled in and told them someone had complained about their setup. They told the Smiths they would also have to pull up their tent.

"They were civil," Smith said. "He said it was policy. He said we couldn't be here. That's all he would say, that's all he ever said.

"It's policy."