The US Supreme Court has just ruled that local governments can seize private property at will so long as it serves a public use. Say it aint so. This sounds more like a ruling that would come out of my own Canuckian backyard from our wayward Liberal judges than from the Yanks.
Not that Canada has anything to talk about. When we decide to draw up a Charter of Fundamental Rights & Freedoms we cleverly forgot to put in a right to property.
That and technically no Canadian owns land anywhere in Canada. In reality every piece of land in any country in the commonwealth derives ownership from a deed that the Queen of England gave for that land to be used by a specific person. That person then sold that land to someone else, and then that person to someone else, and eventually the original deed is lost in paperwork. Yet essentially it is still the Queen's land, it's just that she lets us use it.
So that's how you get into situations similar to Robot Guy's experiences.
I should clarify: I like the Queen. She's a nice harmless wise old mother. I don't mind having her around, but I wouldn't cry if she was gone. I just wish that this country would find some way of affirming somewhere that Canadians do in fact have a right to property - not just granted to us.
Seizure of property? I wonder how a Jewish holocaust survivor would react to that one.