Recently, a 50,000 lb excavator was parked by a local contractor in front of a fire access gate on Carter Road, blocking emergency access to the water for almost 3 days and putting all the residences on Carter Road, their occupants and the surrounding area at risk. It took nearly 48 hours to find the owner and have the machinery removed.
A few years ago, only metres down the road from this location, a residence burned to the ground. Were it not for the quick and professional work of our local emergency services, the whole area could have gone up in flames. 5 emergency vehicles took turns drawing water from this fire access to extinguish the flames before they reached an on-site propane tank. Had they found the access blocked – as it was recently – a disaster could have occurred and people could have died.
It is easy to say that such a blatant act of disregard for local signs is simply stupidity. But it is more than that. It is an example of the attitude of entitlement that allows people to believe they have the right to do whatever they want to do regardless of laws or the rights and safety of others. This is exactly what happened on this public property for years before our municipality took responsibility for protecting it with necessary signage and monitoring. For years people abused the property, camping illegally, starting and leaving fires, dumping garbage, the holding tanks of campers into Georgian Bay and harvesting shore stone – all because they felt that they had the right to do so.
As Canadians, we live next to a nation that is being ripped apart by a despot who feels entitled to ignore laws, courts and the Constitution regardless of the danger to anyone else. We need this kind of attitude in Canada like we need a house on fire.
Barry J. Robinson,
Lion’s Head
