Edit: adding some photos from the Seniors Climate Witness Facebook page.
Aren’t Parliament grounds public land? How can one trespass on public land?
The same way any city or town can make rules about what you can do in your neighborhood park: they grant the public general access, but retain control over it and how it is used.
It’s public land because it’s owned by the “public” but it doesn’t mean the public has unrestricted access.
So owned by the public, managed by its representatives
Not quite, the land is owned by the crown.
“public lands” means lands belonging to Her Majesty in right of Canada and includes lands of which the Government of Canada has power to dispose."
For example, military bases are on “public land” but I don’t think we expect to be able to wander into those.
Edit: the quote I posted used the outdated term (now federal real property), but the definition in the current act remains the same.
yet another reason to get rid of the royal family – the world outgrew religious hereditary monarchies centuries ago.
No argument from me about yeeting the crown, but if it wasn’t owned by the crown it would be owned by the state. Yes, technically owned by the “public” as the state is not an individual, but the person I was replying to used “managed” and I think “controlled” is a more accurate word. There is no direct public input on how the lands are used or what access rights the public have to them.
It’s almost the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. It’s a great time to read about what Federal Real Property (current turn for “public land”) means with respect to indigenous sovereignty and treaty lands. I’m not suggesting this as some virtue signal (that’s a garbage term btw, but felt appropriate here).I think it’s the best concrete example of what it really means to say the crown (or state) owns the land.
The TL;DR is that access to treaty lands is at the pleasure of the crown and not enshrined in law. Modern treaties tend to include details, but when people talk about the constitutionally enshrined rights of indigenous sovereignty, there isn’t much there. Scroll down to section 35 on this page.
The crown “grants” certain rights to the indigenous parties of the treaties, but the crown owns treaty lands, including reserves, which they keep “in trust” for the nation. This is strictly about land ownership, sovereignty on reserves is this whole other thing I won’t get in to.
Indigenous Writes is not a new book, but I found it to be a very good introduction and correction of common misconceptions about canadian-indigenous relations if folks are looking for something approachable.
I do think everyone who lives in canada really should do their best to read and understand the 94 calls to action that came from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
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