U.S. billionaire wins battle to keep anglers off his giant ranch near Merritt

[OnlinePoker]

Source: Kamloops This Week

Stan Kroenke wins battle to stop anglers from accessing lakes on his ranch, even though the lakes are owned by the public.

One of the richest men in the world has won the right to stop anglers from accessing two lakes on his mammoth ranch, even though the lakes are owned by the public.

The B.C. Appeal Court ruled on Friday (March 5) that U.S. billionaire Stan Kroenke, owner of the Douglas Lake Ranch, the largest ranch in Canada, can block the public from crossing his property to fish on Stoney and Minnie lakes, even though the lakes are Crown property.

Because B.C. government laws fail to protect the public’s right to travel on private land to get to publicly owned lakes and streams, the Appeal Court judge overruled portions of Justice Joel Groves’ 2018 decision, which had criticized the RCMP and government staff for collaborating over many years with Kroenke’s ranch staff to deny fishers access.

Read more: https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/u-s-billionaire-wins-battle-to-keep-anglers-off-his-giant-ranch-near-merritt-1.24290864

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The rich get to keep all the toys.

[cilla4progress]

1. That's a crock

of bs. Asshole.

[riversedge]

4. Bingo!!

[Bo Zarts]

2. Change B.C. law.

Stat.

[William Seger]

11. Yup, patch that hole

[Yeehah]

3. I thought Canada was smarter than this

I hope this gets reversed somehow.

[James48]

5. There is a solution.

They just need a DeHavilland Beaver

[Justice]

17. That is a perfect solution. I cannot wait until someone sets up fly in/fly out tours

[ZZenith]

22. So do I.

One of my favorite planes.

[FakeNoose]

27. Unless this billionaire uses surface-to-air missiles to shoot them down

You never know!

[FoxNewsSucks]

6. Could someone remind me again,

why exactly is it that we need billionaires?

They should all be taxed back to being mere millionaires.

[2naSalit]

7. We've been having problems like that with our current...

Billionaire governor of Montana, before he got into office. Several legal suits and new laws had to be fashioned to keep public access to the rivers intact.

[Sapient Donkey]

8. Reminds me of that beach in California in which access was blocked by billionaire Vinod Khosla

to essentially turn a public beach into his own private beach. I may be mistaken, but I believe he bought the land with the intent of doing that.

[keithbvadu2]

9. The law is not about justice or fairness. The law is about what is legal.

[Journeyman]

16. "In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike . . .

"In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread."
- Anatole France

[Yeehah]

24. What a nice fascist statement!

The law in any civilized nation must be about justice and fairness.

[keithbvadu2]

26. You say "must". You don't say "is".

You back up my point.

It's a worthy goal, though.

[Yeehah]

28. You say "is not about"

If the goal is to have just and fair laws, then the law is all about justice and fairness. If a law is found to have unjust results, it must be changed.

[LanternWaste]

33. Cool little bumper sticker.

But not really anything beyond that.

[Alpeduez21]

34. It's a good thing Martin Luther King Jr disagreed with you

He quoted Thomas Aquinas who quoted St. Augustine: "An unjust law is no law at all."

But, yeah, it's a real humanitarian who thinks laws only exist for the sake of law.

[keithbvadu2]

35. So, to you folks, these laws did not exist.

The Christian Bible was used to rationalize/justify slavery.

What did St. Augustine say about slavery?

[keithbvadu2]

36. The saint

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo#Slavery

[Alpeduez21]

37. St Augustine said slavery was bullshit.

See he didn't think laws don't exist for fairness or justice. He felt, as do I, that laws are meant to uphold justice. To enhance the greater good and prevent the abuse of the weak at the hands of the strong. Your counter point against your point that law is amoral is to use clearly immoral laws as examples of why I and many others who think laws can be just or fair should not think that way. It may not be known by you but laws were written and then enforced to prevent all of those once legal behaviors. See, people decided all that behavior was bullshit and shouldn't be allowed. Then a whole bunch of people expended A LOT of effort to change those laws so more fair and just behavior could be enforced.

If we all thought as you claimed in your post then all that stuff would still be going on. Just b/c bad laws existed does not mean the law is unfair and unjust and, thus, legality should not be thought of as fair or just. It means a bunch of power hungry assholes decided to be power hungry assholes.

[keithbvadu2]

38. "and, thus, legality should not be thought of as fair or just."

You prove my point.

Alas. St Augustine was an insignificant cleric of the time concerning slavery. The majority Christian Church, both Catholic and later Protestant, considered slavery to be legal for well over a thousand years past St Augustine's time.

[keithbvadu2]

40. Now you have to call names and insults.

Legal laws can be unjust.

If that is wrong, say so.

[bringthePaine]

10. if there's a Canuck version of Eminent Domain...?

[melm00se]

25. Yes there is eminent domain in Canada.

I agree with the court in this case.

It is not the role of the court to create laws out of thin air. That shatters the concept of separation of powers and checks and balances which exist on almost every democratic country.

[Jedi Guy]

12. It's his land, he gets to say who can and can't be there. It really is that simple.

I can understand why he might not be keen about randos meandering around his property. I wouldn't be all that fond of people trundling through my yard, either. Not every visitor is going to be polite and respectful when it comes to littering, for instance.

[LiberalArkie]

14. In the U.S., if you buy a piece of land than is land locked by other property owners, they have to

allow you access to it.

[radicalleft]

23. Agreed

How much he is worth (monetarily) is irrelevant. He owns the land and therefore has a right to determine who can and cannot use it. If the Canadian government wants to allow access, then he should be compensated. I am guessing that he has had issues with people treating the area with some disregard in the past...but again, just a guess.

[LiberalArkie]

13. The BC gov should drain the lakes and fill them up since the land owner probably uses them also

[Politicub]

15. Oh, Canada. I'm surprised that there isn't an easement on which to build a road.

[OnlinePoker]

20. There's already a road into these lakes.

They were used in the past when the previous owners had the property, but this owner has now blocked access. A similar thing has been occurring here on Vancouver Island where logging companies are blocking access to roads and trails through their cut permits that have previously been open.

[LogicFirst]

18. Fish from drones.

[DBoon]

19. really loud drones.

make the landowner's life miserable

[Ziggysmom]

21. The billionaire is married to a Wal Mart Walton. Screw Wal Mart.

Their stores and employment practices suck. Never shopped there and I never will.

[modrepub]

29. Double Edged Sword?

So couldn't this be used by conservatory agencies or wealthy conservationists to buy up important waypoints for migrating birds to keep hunters away from them or buy up important water areas and keep anglers and poachers off of them? Seems like this ruling could also be used to assisted stressed wildlife.

[Marcuse]

30. Trudeau could retaliate by denying access to Angle Inlet, MN - but the border is already closed.

[Griefbird]

31. I have no sympathy for billionaires.

Nevertheless, my wife and I lived in a place where a good sized stream ran between our house and our garage 40 feet away (we had no vehicle access across the creek). As fisherpersons worked their way downstream from the Boy Scout land onto our front yard, we did not hesitate to discourage them from continuing to fish there. While some were polite, the majority of them stood in our yard and argued with us that they had a right to be there; but in fact, their rights ended at the water's edge.

[krispos42]

32. I'd love to anchor a big houseboat just offshore...

...And then ferry in local fisherman in by helicopter. Flying over his house each way of each trip.