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Freeman on the Land?

Meads v. Meads, 2012, ABQB, 571

http://canlii.ca/en/ab/abqb/doc/2012/2012abqb571/2012abqb571.pdf

A very extensive court decision from Alberta in a divorce case that examines quite a few facets of :Freeman on the Land" beliefs and explains the legal reasons behind their absolute uselessness - Written as a court decision but in a manner that could be used by other Judges less familiar with their tactics.
 
The interesting thing about the case that je suis prest posted is that even though the Judge clearly thinks the guy is somewhat of an idiot, he still found that the law sided with the accused. Just goes to show how tough the role of judge must be. I probably would have just convicted the guy for pissing me off with his ramblings.
 
je suis prest said:
While the actions of the "Freemen" can be quite distressing - particularly in the case of the poor woman in Alberta - and they are increasingly a nuisance in the courts, the actions of one of them has at least allowed one Ontario judge to write one of the funniest, and best written, court judgments in many years. It is worth a read.

http://canlii.ca/en/on/oncj/doc/2013/2013oncj160/2013oncj160.html

Priceless, just priceless, MPs inbound
 
I love how in lines 1 to 4 he blames his friend and colleague for having to deal with this mess in the first place.

The road to hell and all. :nod:
 
S.M.A. said:
The Freeman movement in the news again:

Yahoo News: Daily Brew section
Latest incident involving a ‘Freeman’ turns Alberta pensioner’s life upside down ....
Squatting firing alright, squatting - STOPS!
Supposed Freeman-on-the-land Andreas Pirelli is not free anymore.

The man who declared the northwest duplex he rents an "embassy" and refused to pay full rent to his landlady was arrested early Friday by city police, said Duty Insp. Darrell Hesse.

"Our members attended the address in Parkdale just before 2 a.m. — they engaged in some sort of dialogue with Mr. Pirelli, or Mr. Antonacci as I believe that's his real name, and at some point during the dialogue he was taken into custody without incident," Hesse said.

While he was slapped with an eviction notice in a Calgary court earlier this week that said he had to be out by Friday, Hesse said the man was arrested on a warrant in connection with an alleged assault on a landlady in that city ....
Calgary Sun, 27 Sept 13
 
recceguy said:
The outstanding warrant should be enough to take him into custody right now. Why wait till the weekend for him to do more damage, formulate plans, etc?

Calgary Police can make the arrest, and only hold him until they consult with Quebec authorities and determine if they want to extend the warrant. There was a case a few years ago, a man flying to UK out of Winnipeg had an outstanding warrant in Ontario. He was held by Customs until CBSA received notice that OPP had no desire to extend the warrant and would only act on it if he ever entered Ontario. He was then permitted to continue his vacation as normal. His return flight was not so pleasant, he had a connecting flight through Pearson and was arrested at the gate by OPP.
 
PrairieThunder said:
Calgary Police can make the arrest, and only hold him until they consult with Quebec authorities and determine if they want to extend the warrant. There was a case a few years ago, a man flying to UK out of Winnipeg had an outstanding warrant in Ontario. He was held by Customs until CBSA received notice that OPP had no desire to extend the warrant and would only act on it if he ever entered Ontario. He was then permitted to continue his vacation as normal. His return flight was not so pleasant, he had a connecting flight through Pearson and was arrested at the gate by OPP.

They were just being fiscally responsible, allowing the gentleman to pay for his own repatriation. ;D
 
Makes you wonder if CBSA neglected to mention to him that little bit...he might have changed his point of entry  :nod:.  Or he didn't think anyone would do anything about it since he "wasn't staying"...

MM
 
Related:

Yahoo News/Daily Brew newsfeed

Canadian police see ‘sovereign citizen’ movement as public safety threat
By Steve Mertl

National Affairs Contributor

By Steve Mertl | Daily Brew – 6 hours ago

The so-called freeman-on-the-land movement, which appears to be gaining traction in Canada, is getting a closer look from law enforcement.

The freemen, who also style themselves natural persons or sovereign citizens, have evolved from a nuisance into a "growing concern" and a "threat to officer and public safety," in the eyes of senior police officials, The Canadian Press reports.

The news agency obtained a presentation prepared for a 2012 conference of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which recommended more communication between law enforcement and other agencies, including Canada Border Services Agency, National Defence and Canada Revenue Agency.

CP noted the freemen had already caught the attention of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The briefing material was obtained by CP under access-to-information legislation, along with a pamphlet prepared for the police chiefs explaining the freeman ideology.


"This movement is based on a decentralized, libertarian ideology, which is often motivated by personal gain, self-gratification or justification of illegal behaviour," says the pamphlet.
 
The Freeman of the Land mentality also exist in the black community. They call themselves Moorish American nationals. They have the same beliefs and methods of operation as the Freeman\sovereign citizens . I was recently sent a notarized, formal bill filed through the courts in Cook County, Illinois for 5.3 billion dollars, to be paid in gold bullion. A active member of the  Moorish Americans has billed me $63,000\hr for his time. Apparently when you arrest some for 2 prohibited firearms and $12,000, they think you're wasting their time. 
I have asked finance to cut me a cheque, in my name, so I can past my bill.  ;D
 
Yeah, we've been warned about these guys, including getting our credit checks done annually and watching out for liens placed on our homes/vehicles if they're able to identify you... Huge pain in the ass, apparently. I've been fortunate enough not to have dealt with any yet.
 
Have you told them that you, also, are a Freeman, and claim the right to bill anyone who uses your name in official correspondence the amount of umpteen squadillion dollars?
 
"This movement is based on a decentralized, libertarian ideology, which is often motivated by personal gain, self-gratification or justification of illegal behaviour," says the pamphlet.

Shows they don't know much about libertarians either. Libertarian philosophy is completely the opposite of this statement.
 
I'd say this is a bit of an overreaction.

The number of "Freeloaders on the land" is very miniscule, and their ideology isn't very appealing to most people (even the Occupy movement folks went back to their homes after they had endured bad weather, robbery and unsanitary "camping" conditions without the benefit of civilization for a few weeks), so to claim this is some sort of "public saftey threat" seems more like special pleading to increase police powers than anything else.

Like someone said upthread, if a person really is claiming to be a "Freeloader on the land" while committing a crime against property, then release them into the wilds of BC or Northern Ontario where they can be as Sovereign as they like and not interfere with other people's lives or enjoyment of property.
 
Thucydides said:
I'd say this is a bit of an overreaction.

The number of "Freeloaders on the land" is very miniscule, and their ideology isn't very appealing to most people (even the Occupy movement folks went back to their homes after they had endured bad weather, robbery and unsanitary "camping" conditions without the benefit of civilization for a few weeks), so to claim this is some sort of "public saftey threat" seems more like special pleading to increase police powers than anything else.

Like someone said upthread, if a person really is claiming to be a "Freeloader on the land" while committing a crime against property, then release them into the wilds of BC or Northern Ontario where they can be as Sovereign as they like and not interfere with other people's lives or enjoyment of property.

Yes minuscule, but in Land Of The Hippies (Greater Vancouver), they are abundant and are still a threat even in small numbers. Just because they're "miniscule" does not eliminate threat to police or public safety. Let's look at the Grand Prairie incident. Unknown number of Freeloaders captured Trappers cabins with unknown weapons.

Remember Mayerthorpe?
 
The same arguments can be made, and with even greater credibility, against followers of Islam in Canada. They exist in large numbers and some of them commit acts of domestic violence against their own family members, and members of their community have been implicatied in real threats against public saftey (planning terrorist attacks against Parliament, Via rail in the GTA and "pressure cooker" bombs in BC), but normal police powers and procedures (coupled with some intelligence sharing) has proven quite effective against them.

There is always potential for individuals to commit actis of violence or crimes, but in a liberal, democratic society the powers of the police need to be constrained. Militarized police, like in some places in the United States, become a danger to ordinary citizens as well.
 
Where are you getting that the FOTL are inspiring more militarization of the police? I don't see that happening. This is just routine sharing of officer safety/criminal intelligence information.

I know a number of other officers who have had dealings with these individuals. Police/FOTL encounters are something that does happen with fair regularity. I'm unsure why it's seen as an 'overreaction' to disseminate a basic primer on FOTL to officers who may not have been aware of them. I'd not call an estimated 30,000 FOTL to be 'miniscule'. Not huge, certainly, but noteworthy.
 
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