This weekend needs it's own name - the last weekend of February when there's still a crud-dispensing storm or two floating across the continent just those jerks in grade six holding you down giving you a cherry belly. Cabin Fever Weekend. What to do? Wash the car in your shorts despite the sleet? BBQ in the freezing rain? Stay in bed and silently cry all alone with the shades down and the light out as you eat overly priced overly packaged premium snacks that don't taste as good as you had hoped when you bought them?
- There is an exciting political race in the USA and it isn't related to the primaries - it's the race in upstate NY for a state senate seat that comes to a vote next Tuesday. It is turning out to be a bit of a morality play and maybe a message for the Federal election that the expected Republican victory is being put at real risk due to negative ads that they have run against the Democratic candidate - especially after the Democratic candidate made the ads the issue. And because the balance of power in the whole state is in play, there is too much money for the TV ad campaigns for them to not get in too deep. The fun thing is, of course, that there is no real scandal to base any attack ads upon so they are sort of battling over who milks cows better and who is more like another bad politician.
- Excellent news this morning as Turkey sends its army into Iraq. That is going to make everything easier.
- Via the Flea comes a link to some amazing photos to this week's Queen Street fire in Toronto.
- Morton has a new managerial team. You can relax now.
- Nice piece in the New York Times on the Dodgers leaving the town where they have held spring training since 1948:
In this divorce, as in most others, nothing is neat. The Dodgers hope to mumble goodbye after this spring, but they may have to return next spring, caps in hand, if their new Arizona home is not finished in time. In that case, they will be spending their Florida nights on the metaphorical basement couch. And in this divorce, as in most others, things are left behind. The blue-stoned ring on a retired pilot’s hand. The name of an elementary school. The occasional glimpses of an elusive, almost mystical, Dodger.
Even though the Dodgers play on the west coast so no one really follows them, I will be upset with them today. - It is sad when people think what other people own is really theirs. But, when you think about it, this is not all that unlike Boing Boing Web-2.0-ism. Property 2.0. One question - was the lease up?
Comments
Paul of Kingston - February 22, 2008 9:51 am
Curious that the Chippewans would claim access and ownership over the built structures and not just their land. I recall similar arrangements in BC where the cottagers were given the option of removing there buildings or selling them to the band. All sounds a bit bungled.
Alan - February 22, 2008 10:02 am
Not curious at all. Buildings become fixtures to the land unless the lease states otherwise.
Ben (The Tiger) - February 22, 2008 10:55 am
I was just going to ask about fixtures... silly cottagers, they should have removed their buildings before the lease was up.
Alan - February 22, 2008 11:02 am
It is just another example, if a little strained, of that old chestnut <i>nemo dat quod non habat</i>.
Ben (The Tiger) - February 22, 2008 11:07 am
Good for the Chippewans. Property rights are the lifeblood of a free society.
"Get off my land!" :p
Hans - February 22, 2008 2:54 pm
Is it Friday already?
sean liddle - February 22, 2008 4:37 pm
I remember hearing of the dispute quite a while ago on CBC. Apparently (as I remember it) it isn't as cut and dry as it sounds in that the lease has not exactly expired yet. Therefore how can anyone claim ownership under Canadian law and lay claim to the lands and the buildings etc. leasees the chance to remove their belongings. Just seems wrong.
Alan - February 22, 2008 4:50 pm
Actually, the leases terminated 13 years ago according to this report from the Toronto Star from January 2007 copied here:<blockquote class="smalltext">The Gibbs family was one of the first to build on the stretch of waterfront on the southern side of Hope Bay. Although the land was part of the Cape Croker reserve, they made their lease payments to the federal government. All the leases expired in 1995 and since then negotiations between Ottawa and the Nawash to reinstate long-term leases could not be resolved. "It wasn't us negotiating. It was out of our hands," said Gibbs. The cottagers continued to make their lease payments to the federal government until 2005, when the Nawash band council voted to again designate the subdivision for leasing. But that fall, a new chief and council were elected who did not agree to the vote, effectively ending the leasing arrangement. Last May, six-month temporary permits were issued. In return for the six-month permit, the Gibbs family paid around $3,000 in rent, double the lease payment of other years. But Gibbs doesn't think the issue is about money. "If it was about money, all they would have to do is tell us how much they want," he said. Paul Nadjiwan, chief of the Chippewas of Nawash, said in a statement that the cottagers were informed when the six-month permits were issued that they would not have any legal rights to use the land when the permits expired. Gibbs said that in the years since 1995, his father had remained confident a new long-term lease agreement would eventually be reached, so the government letter came as a total surprise.</blockquote>So, again, <i>nemo dat</i>...
sean liddle - February 22, 2008 8:52 pm
Well, then I sit corrected. The implications made on CBC last summer by the residents differed quite a bit from reality.