Latest news with #JeffEvely
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
War hero's jaw-dropping $29k fine that proves Canada can't see the forest for the trees
A Canadian Armed Forces veteran has been hit with a jaw-dropping $28,872 fine for taking a walk in the woods. Jeff Evely, of Nova Scotia, deliberately defied the province's harsh new wildfire restrictions - a sweeping ban on anyone setting foot in forests this summer - so he could challenge what he calls an 'illogical and excessive' law in court.
National Observer
4 days ago
- Politics
- National Observer
Wildfire misinfo forces a hard choice on Conservatives
The wildfires in Atlantic Canada have produced a new folk hero for Canada's alt-right: Jeff Evely, a retired soldier from Sydney Glace-Bay in Nova Scotia. On August 8, three days after premier Tim Houston banned the public from entering Nova Scotia's woods – with a $25,000 fine for transgressors – Evely filmed himself doing just that. The 6-minute video is oddly mesmerizing. Evely starts by visiting the conservation officers stationed in a small building at the edge of the forbidden forest; speaking with an air of calm bemusement, he informs the officers that he's about to walk into the trees. 'I don't want to make any trouble for you guys, I just want a piece of Tim Houston,' Evely says. A quick jaunt later, he's brandishing a ticket for $28,872.50. 'Unheard of relationships' Reasonable people can disagree on the wisdom and efficacy of banning the public from walking in the forest during a wildfire emergency. But the influencer crowd isn't interested in a reasoned debate. As the far-right media ecosystem launches its latest narrative, the federal Conservatives must decide whether to align themselves with the movement as they have on past issues, or maintain a careful distance. 'Jeff Evely from Canada has been fined $28,872.50 by the Nova Scotia Regime for walking into the woods which violates the WEF/WHO/UN 'Communist Climate Lockdowns,'' is how Liz Churchill put it to her 800,000 followers on X. 'Don't even think about the climate lockdowns you were warned about a year ago,' Kat Kanada posted sarcastically to her own quarter-million followers. 'Nothing to see here. Just a lockdown because of 'climate.'' Neither Tim Houston nor Susan Holt, New Brunswick's premier who also banned the public from the woods, has mentioned climate change as a reason for the ban. But that's the point: climate denial isn't about climate change anymore; it's just one of countless stories in a global library of conspiracy theories, all aimed at deepening our arguments and heightening distrust in authority. 'What's remarkable is the degree to which this belief in climate change being a fraud spills over to other things,' Frank Graves, president of the polling firm Ekos, told Canada's National Observer. Over the past five years, Graves' polling has revealed a stark correlation between climate denial, anti-vax conspiracies and a whole host of other demonstrably false narratives, all linked to Conservative voting. 'It spills into, like, Russians aren't committing war crimes in Ukraine,' Graves said. Support for Donald Trump, another example, is 25 times higher among Conservative voters than the national average. 'These are unheard of relationships that we've never seen before.' These relationships didn't just spring up organically, either. 'We know that it's linked to a disinformation ecosystem, some of it emanating as a tool of statecraft from other countries,' Graves said. 'Russia's really good at it. But it gets echoed as well back in our society.' People like Jeff Evely aren't on Vladimir Putin's payroll, Graves emphasizes. But whether they know it or not, they're swimming in a narrative soup that is heavily influenced by malicious foreign actors – Putin and Trump chief among them. The Tenet Media connection A powerful example is the Tenet Media affair that erupted one year ago in the US. Tenet Media was an American podcast and video platform founded in 2022 by two far-right Canadian influencers, Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan. The couple started Tenet with $10 million in seed money from RT (formerly Russia Today), an outfit Global Affairs Canada describes as 'a Russian state-owned media entity that has become actively engaged in Russia's global disinformation and influence efforts.' Tenet hired six more far-right influencers, including Canadian Lauren Southern, who worked for Rebel News before joining Tenet. Editorial control, however, was maintained by two Russian executives from RT. On September 4, 2024, the US Department of Justice indicted those two executives for spreading Russian propaganda, and the company was dissolved (none of the Canadian or American influencers who worked for Tenet were charged, and all claimed ignorance of the source of their funding). The majority of content Tenet produced in its brief lifetime was directed at American politics and politicians. But Canadians were deeply enmeshed in those narratives, which often targeted Canadian politics as well. The Canadian Digital Media Research Network conducted a forensic analysis of Tenet Media's impact on Canadians. 'Across all podcasts produced by Tenet Media influencers, we found regular and intense criticism of Canadian public policy and Canadian politicians,' the report wrote. For instance, Lauren Southern created over 50 videos about Canadian politics for Tenet. One was called 'Canada is Becoming a COMMUNIST HELLHOLE. ' That video featured Kat Kanada, who compared Soviet-era breadlines with health care wait lists and other queues she found here. As mentioned above, Kat Kanada is now promoting the 'climate lockdown' theory of Nova Scotia's hiking ban. She's just one of several Canadian influencers who were briefly in the Tenet orbit to do so. All of these influencers were fixtures of Pierre Poilievre's election campaign; they attended and broadcast his rallies and posted daily pro-Conservative videos to millions of Canadians. A few weeks after the election, Poilievre personally called many of those influencers to thank them for their help. Kat Kanada was one of them. That doesn't mean Poilievre, Kanada, or anyone else in that cohort was deliberately working for Putin. The forensic analysis by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network explicitly ruled this out. 'We find no evidence of such a link,' the authors wrote. 'There are minimal public interactions between Tenet Media influencers and Canadian politicians. Moreover, no Canadian politician regularly produces content online that is comparable to that of the Tenet Media influencers.' In fact, the authors lamented attempts by left-wing partisans in the days following the Tenet indictments to make such a connection. They discounted a #PierrePutin hashtag that began circulating online as baseless. 'We've given the far left a free pass on this stuff,' Marcus Kolga, the founding director of DisinfoWatch, told Canada's National Observer. In fact, says Kolga, there's a huge number of far-left activists, agitators and influencers whose impact on Canada's public discourse mirrors that of the far right. One example Kolga named was Dmitri Lascaris, who describes himself as a 'lawyer, journalist and activist.' Lascaris ran for leadership of the federal Green Party in 2021; after losing, he went on to visit Moscow and Crimea in 2023 and wrote glowing reviews of what he saw. 'He actually posted photos that he was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs meeting with Russian officials, just a year after the invasion of Ukraine,' Kolga said. But the both-sides comparisons only go so far. A massive partisan asymmetry is at the heart of this story, one that Kolga, Graves and other experts Canada's National Observer reached out to for this story all emphasized. Namely: You don't see far-left influencers at a Liberal election rally. At Pierre Poilievre's rallies, influencers were everywhere. The federal Conservative Party has enmeshed itself with them and their false narratives in a way that no other Canadian party has. 'There's reasons those people got there' There are signs that Pierre Poilievre and the federal Conservatives are conflicted about this relationship. As of this writing, nobody from the Conservative Party of Canada has tweeted anything about 'climate lockdowns' in Atlantic Canada; their critique of the hiking ban has been extremely muted and Poilievre hasn't touched the issue at all. That's in stark contrast to the last popular cause to reverberate through the far-right information ecosystem. During the sentencing hearing of Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber three weeks ago, Poilievre and many of his top MPs were posting in lockstep with the same influencers who are now up in arms about the hiking ban. Why the sudden distance? One complicating factor is surely that Tim Houston, the premier of Nova Scotia, is a Conservative. Another twist is that Jeff Evely, who martyred himself with a $28K ticket, belongs to the far-right People's Party of Canada; he ran as a candidate in the recent election. Until now, the PPC has been so fringe they've made the federal Conservatives look reasonable. Associating with them would almost certainly exacerbate the problem that arguably cost Poilievre the election — the perception that he's too cozy with extremists. Even trickier: Evely was also one of the protagonists of the 'Freedom Convoy'. He was convicted of mischief and banned from Ottawa for two years for his role in that movement. Poilievre isn't the only one facing a dilemma here. Those who oppose the convoy and what the Conservative Party has become need to rise above mockery in their critiques, says Graves. 'It's not helpful.' 'There's reasons those people got there, and it's not just because they're stupid. This becomes possible because you have members of our society who feel despair.' Whatever one makes of Poilievre's motives or policies, he's the one federal politician who made a sustained effort to connect with the working class of Canadians who are hardest hit by rising inequality in Canada. The good news, says Graves, is that only about seven per cent of Canadians are so deeply radicalized as to be beyond the point of no return. 'We know that people who are moderately disinformed exhibit a fair bit of plasticity,' he said. 'They can be brought out of that state of disinformation.' Meanwhile, after 150 days in office, Carney's approval rating is a sky-high 64 per cent – almost exactly the proportion of Canadians who reject online conspiracies, says Graves. 'There's people who don't trust the legacy media,' he allows, 'but 65 per cent do.' Even the CBC, the most pilloried of legacy media, is trusted by roughly half of Canadians; by contrast, only five per cent trust information they get off Facebook, and just one per cent trust X (formerly Twitter). Even those numbers, though, are roughly three times higher than they were before the previous federal election, said Graves. He urged all levels of society to engage with these issues while there's still time; history suggests what can happen if we don't. 'Both Goebbels and Trotsky said a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth,' he said. 'But they didn't have algorithmically driven AI ... to disseminate it.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
N.S. man purposely violates ban on entering woods, gets handed $28K fine
A Nova Scotia man has been slapped with a fine worth more than $28,000 after deliberately violating the province's ban on woods travel, a move he says was necessary to challenge the provincial proclamation in court. In an effort to prevent wildfires in the midst of a drought, the Nova Scotia government has imposed a ban on anyone entering the woods — including hiking, fishing and camping — until Oct. 15 or until conditions improve. There is also a ban of open fires. The fine for violating the proclamation under the Forests Act is $25,000. A victim surcharge and HST also apply to the fine, bringing the total to $28,872.50. Last Friday, Jeff Evely of Coxheath, N.S., arrived at the Department of Natural Resources office just outside Sydney and declared he would be walking into the woods nearby. He recorded audio and video of his encounter and posted it on his Facebook page. "I want to challenge this order in court, and the only way for me to do that is to get the fine. I'm not trying to make trouble for your guys," he told the official. "I'm ordering you to not," the worker replied. "Does somebody want to follow me out there?" asked Evely. He is later seen walking into dense woods before heading back into the office. Evely is then handed a summary offence ticket. Evely, a retired veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces who ran as a candidate for the People's Party of Canada in the April federal election, argues the ban is too restrictive and an example of government overreach. "There is no logical connection to the goal of preventing wildfires to barring my sneakers from the woods," said Evely in an interview at Petersfield Provincial Park, where he regularly walks his dog. "It goes too far." This isn't the first time Evely has legally challenged a ban on entering the woods. In fact, it was the outcome of that case that led him to purposely violate the restriction this time around. A similar ban was put in place in May 2023 as two major wildfires burned in Halifax and Shelburne counties, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people. WATCH | Nova Scotia isn't the only province telling the public to stay out of the woods: About two weeks after the ban was lifted, Evely filed an application for judicial review of the natural resources minister's proclamation, arguing his rights were infringed since the two wildfires did not impact his Cape Breton community. He also argued the provincewide ban was put in place arbitrarily. In a decision dated Jan. 22, 2024, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Jamie Campbell ruled Evely did not have standing, meaning he did not have a legal basis to bring the case to court, given there were no charges or fines against him. Campbell noted Evely was seeking a declaration saying that the minister's decision was unreasonable and beyond the authority granted under the Forests Act. "But the proclamation issued by the minister has been revoked. The court cannot declare something invalid that is no longer in force," Campbell wrote. He ruled the application therefore could not proceed. Evely said he believes the court has no choice this time around but to examine the legality of the restrictions and whether they are constitutional. Toronto lawyer Marty Moore will help represent Evely. Moore leads a team of lawyers at Charter Advocates Canada, which is funded by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. Moore said there are a few avenues they may take, including an application for a judicial review. The team is reviewing the case and will decide how to proceed in the coming days and weeks. "It's an arbitrary restriction. It's not rationally connected to stopping forest fires, by preventing people from doing activities that have nothing to do with the creation of forest fires," said Moore. "You can't cause a forest fire simply by walking through the forest. And in fact, you might be in a position to prevent a forest fire by reporting an early combustion or even reporting someone who's intentionally going out into the woods to set a forest fire." Moore said he believes Evely does have standing for a judicial review in this case, given he was issued a summary offence ticket and fined. 'Widespread support' for ban: Natural Resources Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston has said the ban was put in place following recommendations from experts. "So the experts gave the advice. I agreed with it. I'm happy to make sure that we're doing everything we can to protect people, to protect property and try to just get through this fire season," Houston told reporters last week. In a statement Tuesday, the Department of Natural Resources said the decision was not made lightly. It said the current conditions are extremely dangerous. "We're asking all Nova Scotians to take seriously the precautionary measures we've put in place.… Our teams and experts analyze data on a daily basis to make the best decisions for the protection of Nova Scotians and their homes and communities," the statement said. "We have seen widespread support from across multiple business sectors and from Nova Scotians who want to do the right thing." Bans also in place in N.B., N.L. Ken McMullen, president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, said such bans are imposed for a reason and it's better to err on the side of caution. "I know that this might appear inconvenient. I understand that it might seem over the top. The reality is desperate times may call for desperate measures," said McMullen, who is fire chief for the City of Red Deer in Alberta. Scott Tingley, manager of forest protection with Nova Scotia's Department of Natural Resources, has repeatedly noted that the vast majority of the province's forest fires — 97 per cent — are caused by humans. Newfoundland and Labrador, where multiple wildfires are burning, has vowed to impose lofty fines on people who violate its fire ban. Fines now range from $50,000 to $150,000, as well as up to a year in prison. New Brunswickers are being asked to stay out of the woods, and the province has banned all access to Crown land as crews battle 10 active wildfires, including two major ones. But it has not imposed a hefty fine. MORE TOP STORIES
CBC
7 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
N.S. man purposely violates ban on entering woods, gets handed $28K fine
Social Sharing A Nova Scotia man has been slapped with a fine worth more than $28,000 after deliberately violating the province's ban on entering woods, a move he says was necessary to challenge the provincial proclamation in court. In an effort to prevent wildfires in the midst of a drought, the Nova Scotia government has imposed a ban on anyone entering the woods — including hiking, fishing and camping — until Oct. 15 or until conditions improve. There is also a ban of open fires. The fine for violating the proclamation under the Forests Act is $25,000. A victim surcharge and HST also apply to the fine, bringing the total to $28,872.50. Last Friday, Jeff Evely of Coxheath, N.S., arrived at the Department of Natural Resources office just outside Sydney and declared he would be walking into the woods nearby. He recorded audio and video of his encounter and posted it on his Facebook page. "I want to challenge this order in court, and the only way for me to do that is to get the fine. I'm not trying to make trouble for your guys," he told the official. "I'm ordering you to not," the worker replied. "Does somebody want to follow me out there?" asked Evely. He is later seen walking into dense woods before heading back into the office. Evely is then handed a summary offence ticket. Evely, a retired veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces who ran as a candidate for the People's Party of Canada in the April federal election, argues the ban is too restrictive and an example of government overreach. "There is no logical connection to the goal of preventing wildfires to barring my sneakers from the woods," said Evely in an interview at Petersfield Provincial Park, where he regularly walks his dog. "It goes too far." This isn't the first time Evely has legally challenged a ban on entering the woods. In fact, it was the outcome of that case that led him to purposely violate the restriction this time around. A similar ban was put in place in May 2023 as two major wildfires burned in Halifax and Shelburne counties, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people. WATCH | Nova Scotia isn't the only province telling the public to stay out of the woods: Forest bans in N.B. and N.S. spark backlash, confusion 2 days ago About two weeks after the ban was lifted, Evely filed an application for judicial review of the natural resources minister's proclamation, arguing his rights were infringed since the two wildfires did not impact his Cape Breton community. He also argued the provincewide ban was put in place arbitrarily. In a decision dated Jan. 22, 2024, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Jamie Campbell ruled Evely did not have standing, meaning he did not have a legal basis to bring the case to court, given there were no charges or fines against him. Campbell noted Evely was seeking a declaration saying that the minister's decision was unreasonable and beyond the authority granted under the Forests Act. "But the proclamation issued by the minister has been revoked. The court cannot declare something invalid that is no longer in force," Campbell wrote. He ruled the application therefore could not proceed. Evely said he believes the court has no choice this time around but to examine the legality of the restrictions and whether they are constitutional. Toronto lawyer Marty Moore will help represent Evely. Moore leads a team of lawyers at Charter Advocates Canada, which is funded by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. Moore said there are a few avenues they may take, including an application for a judicial review. The team is reviewing the case and will decide how to proceed in the coming days and weeks. "It's an arbitrary restriction. It's not rationally connected to stopping forest fires, by preventing people from doing activities that have nothing to do with the creation of forest fires," said Moore. "You can't cause a forest fire simply by walking through the forest. And in fact, you might be in a position to prevent a forest fire by reporting an early combustion or even reporting someone who's intentionally going out into the woods to set a forest fire." Moore said he believes Evely does have standing for a judicial review in this case, given he was issued a summary offence ticket and fined. 'Widespread support' for ban: Natural Resources Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston has said the ban was put in place following recommendations from experts. "So the experts gave the advice. I agreed with it. I'm happy to make sure that we're doing everything we can to protect people, to protect property and try to just get through this fire season," Houston told reporters last week. In a statement Tuesday, the Department of Natural Resources said the decision was not made lightly. It said the current conditions are extremely dangerous. "We're asking all Nova Scotians to take seriously the precautionary measures we've put in place.… Our teams and experts analyze data on a daily basis to make the best decisions for the protection of Nova Scotians and their homes and communities," the statement said. "We have seen widespread support from across multiple business sectors and from Nova Scotians who want to do the right thing." Bans also in place in N.B., N.L. Ken McMullen, president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, said such bans are imposed for a reason and it's better to err on the side of caution. "I know that this might appear inconvenient. I understand that it might seem over the top. The reality is desperate times may call for desperate measures," said McMullen, who is fire chief for the City of Red Deer in Alberta. Scott Tingley, manager of forest protection with Nova Scotia's Department of Natural Resources, has repeatedly noted that the vast majority of the province's forest fires — 97 per cent — are caused by humans. Newfoundland and Labrador, where multiple wildfires are burning, has vowed to impose lofty fines on people who violate its fire ban. Fines now range from $50,000 to $150,000, as well as up to a year in prison. New Brunswickers are being asked to stay out of the woods, and the province has banned all access to Crown land as crews battle 10 active wildfires, including two major ones. But it has not imposed a hefty fine.
NDTV
10-08-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Watch: Canadian Man Fined Rs 18 Lakh For Venturing Into Forest
A retired Canadian armed forces officer has revealed that he was heavily fined for walking in the woods. Jeff Evely, the veteran, took to social media to share a video, where he said he was walking on a mountain road in Coxheath, Nova Scotia, near the Department of Natural Resources, when a fine of $28,872.50 (Rs 18.3 lakh) was imposed on him. "Nova Scotia just handed me a fine for $28,872.50 for walking into the woods," Mr Evely captioned the video on X (formerly Twitter). At the start of the clip, Mr Evely can be seen standing on Mountain Road. He points to one side of the road, saying, "Hey everybody, Jess Evely here out in Nova Scotia on Mountain Road in Coxheath. And as you can see behind me, this is the woods." "But over here, this is not the woods. This is the Department of Natural Resources where conservation officers work, who issued $25,000 fine for going into the woods," he added. Afterwards, he approaches one of the officers and politely asks: "I understand that you guys issue $25,000 fines right now to anybody who goes in. I am going to go into the woods over here. I don't want to make any trouble for you guys, okay?" The Air Force veteran, who retired as a Master Warrant Officer after 20 years of service, then ventured into the forest before returning to the officers who instantly imposed a fine on him. Watch the viral video here: Nova Scotia just handed me a fine for $28,872.50 for walking into the woods. — Jeff Evely (@JeffEvely) August 9, 2025 The Nova Scotia government has banned hiking, camping, fishing and use of vehicles such as ATVs in the woods due to an elevated wildfire risk. The ban came into effect earlier this week, but the decision has divided the citizens who have complained that it curtails their freedom. As the video went viral, social media users questioned the government's diktat and sided with Mr Evely for his quiet defiance. "Hats off to the sargeant major, He's going to win his case and will set a precedent," said one user while another said: "Let me get this straight- in Canada you can't walk in the woods? Wtf is that? Huuuuuuuh? I'm confused." A third commented: "The government will continue to abuse us as long as we let them. It's all a part of the 15 city/climate lockdown plan." Notably, the rule banning entry into the woods is in place for provincial Crown land until October 15 or until weather conditions allow them to be lifted.
