Petition to save an old family farm (for now)

[Pixilated]

Long story short: an elderly Ontario farmer is having his land expropriated by the Department of National Defence for a training ground. The farm has been in his family for 200 years. The military claims he signed the papers but he has said he felt pressured/coerced into signing, and frankly I don't doubt it. It hit the news and a gaggle of protesters showed up on his doorstep and is there yet. The military, to their credit, is walking around this extremely warily. The general feeling by the public is that the military doesn't need the damn land right this minute and should allow 86-year-old Frank Meyers and his wife to finish their days in peace on the family farm. The link is to a petition to Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Not surprisingly, NO politician has wanted to touch this issue with a 10-foot pole and they have all ducked into their various hidey-holes and are staying mum.

[gremcint]

I understand the need for land to be taken to make way for things such as highways and pipelines and while it can suck for some people those can be necessary however what is so special about this farm for it to be a training ground. Canada kind of has an abundance of land, surely this could just go somewhere else.

[TheHuckster]

I understand the need for land to be taken to make way for things such as highways and pipelines and while it can suck for some people those can be necessary however what is so special about this farm for it to be a training ground. Canada kind of has an abundance of land, surely this could just go somewhere else.

It looks like the farm is next door to an existing base which is trying to expand. They could look elsewhere, but I bet they really want the two areas of the base to be adjacent to eachother.

[Signmaker]

I'm seeing different terms being used in different stories, and sometimes switching in the same story. Either they're taking all of his farm, or just a portion of it. I see the figure of 900 acres quoted. I would wager that they are not taking the residential portion of his land, but just the crop fields and wooded areas. I'd really like to see an aerial photo of the property, with outlines of the buyout, as well as knowing how productive the farm has been in recent years.

That aside, in general, I have a bad taste for government expropriation, though I cant think of any feasable alternative. It just sucks all around.