HALIFAX, NS: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that lawyers for Canadian war veteran Jeffrey Evely have filed a Notice for Judicial Review to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, challenging the province’s sweeping travel ban and Mr. Evely’s $28,872.50 fine for walking in the woods.
An emergency hearing will be requested.
Announced by Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston on August 5, the ban prohibits people from entering wooded areas for any purpose. Approximately 75 percent of the province is classified as “woods.” The ban even applies to activities such as hiking, fishing, and walking, even though these carry no risk of starting fires.
Mr. Evely is arguing that the travel ban is unreasonable and unconstitutional and violates his right to liberty and security of the person – protected by section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“Nova Scotia’s travel ban doesn’t target risky activities, but rather treats people as the problem, and bans them from the woods for any purpose. Nova Scotia’s limit on people’s liberties under a blanket claim of ‘safety’ is not rational and has no logical limit,” said constitutional lawyer Marty Moore.
Mr. Evely, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, connects his past service to the country to the need to resist unreasonable and unconstitutional government edicts. “I believe that it is important to have the woods ban proclamation reviewed in light of our Charter rights because I served in Afghanistan and Iraq, so I know how hard won these freedoms really are, especially once they are lost,” he said.
“I find the cavalier attitude with which these freedoms have been impaired to be a gross indignity to our fallen soldiers, and a moral injury to those of us still here. This moral injury serves to exacerbate my PTSD symptoms, which I have been managing with therapy, medication, and daily outdoor activity, which I normally conduct in the woods,” he added.
