Dear Editor:
Re: Snowdusters president denies club opened gate on Billings Twp. property owners’ land
I’m a snowmobiler not a lawyer, so maybe I’m missing something in this dispute over Fraser Road in Billings Township where the OFSC snowmobile trail has gone for many years. But as a former member of the board of directors for the Manitoulin Snowdusters, now retired, I would like to offer my two cents worth.
First, I want to say that in all my years of involvement with the club, I have never seen any member of the executive, the board of directors, or anyone else associated with the Manitoulin Snowdusters, behave or conduct club business in any way except with the utmost integrity. If the Snowdusters say they had nothing to do with opening the gates on Fraser Road, you can be sure they are telling the truth.
Secondly, the gates that the landowners are accusing the snowmobile club of busting open were installed by those landowners to deliberately block access for the use of the road. I think it is a little premature for the law firm in Sudbury to say on behalf of the landowners that the gates “have been set up on the respondent’s private property.” Pardon me, but isn’t that what the ongoing court case is all about, namely to see if the road really is their private property, or if it’s a public road like the township says it is.
Before the landowners and their law firm go around accusing the snowmobile club of breaking the law, maybe they should take a good look in the mirror. It could be they’re the ones that are breaking the law by barricading a road that has been used as a public road for about three quarters of a century. I guess we’ll find out when the court case is over.
I don’t agree either with the law firm’s bold assertion that because the township has had to take them to court to have the road declared a public road, “it would logically indicate that this road is a private road in its current state.”
I think that’s a bunch of malarkey. I’ll bet if you check with the township, they will likely tell you the reason they had to take the landowners to court, was because those landowners wouldn’t stop putting up the barricades and trying to keep the public from using the road. The gates they put in now are just the last of many attempts to keep the public out, by taking the law into their own hands. This is backed up by what Mr. Randy Noble told the newspapers too.
The final arrogance in my opinion is when the law firm says that they “recommend strongly” that the snowmobile club “stay away from the road until such time as the status of Fraser Road has been decided.”
Is that right? Well, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Not just the snowmobilers, but the public at large, could equally say we “recommend strongly” that the landowners now block the road off with locked gates until the road’s status has been decided.
We don’t live back in the old days of the wild west. I thought Canada was a country that was supposed to be based around the rule of law.
Bill Sloan
Gore Bay
