“Nova Scotia’s wildfire restrictions on going into the woods is causing a stir.. at least that’s what American-owned Canadian media companies and rightwing influencers want you to think.” From the blurb for the YouTube video above.
Canada’s version of a rightwing press has been trying to make a ban on entering the woods because of extreme fire conditions some sort of weird civil rights issue. The guy below did his aggrieved victim act by walking into the woods a few days ago, just to get his $25,000 fine ($28,872.50 with surcharges and taxes). And now Postmedia and others are trying (albeit with limited success) to turn him into some goddamn folk hero. Postmedia is Chatham Asset Management, a New Jersey-based hedge fund that owns about 66% of Postmedia. The founder and owner is Anthony Melchiorre, a good friend and major donor of Donald Trump, naturally.
Source: National Post
A Nova Scotia man who intentionally violated the province’s ban on entering the woods says he plans to fight his $28,000 fine.
Jeffrey Evely, a veteran and former candidate for the People’s Party of Canada, recorded a video over the weekend of him first going to the Department of Natural Resources in Coxheath, N.S., and informing officers he was going into the woods to protest the ban.
“I want to challenge this order in court, and the only way to do that is to get the fine,” Jeffrey Evely says in the video. “So, I’m not trying to make trouble for you guys, I just want a piece of (Premier) Tim Houston and I want to be as accommodating and nice as I can be.”
One of the officers asked him not to enter the woods, but he followed through with his plan.
When he left the forest, he was handed a fine of $28,872.50, according to an image of the document.
The new policy came into effect on Aug. 5, and will remain until Oct. 15. It bans people from hiking, camping, fishing and the use of vehicles like ATVs in the woods due to the elevated wildfire risk. People are not even allowed to enter the woods. The fine for violating the ban is $25,000.
Evely, of course, will never pay this fine himself. His backers, whoever they are, will use the fine to get it into court and generally waste people’s time on a meritless case. What it’s meant to do, as we’ve seen in the U.S., is gin up the conservative base and their sense of aggrievement. In that sense, the return on investment is huge for them. Which is why they keep pulling stupid shit like this. It works and it pays well.
Nova Scotia just handed me a fine for $28,872.50 for walking into the woods. pic.twitter.com/sARyEzHAzR
— Jeff Evely (@JeffEvely) August 9, 2025
CTV’s Scott Reid went into a righteous rant about it yesterday, beginning his rant with “This fucking guy…” Canadian MAGA absolutely hated it, of course.
🔥 “These f**king people who don’t step foot in the woods” pic.twitter.com/nwnLbLeCCI
— Curse of Politics (@CurseOfPolitics) August 12, 2025
Meanwhile, a wildfire inside the city of Halifax right now has some people recalling the fires of two years ago that burned down around 150 houses.
As wildfires moved through western Canada on Tuesday, a blaze on the opposite end of the country in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has forced the evacuation of more than 16,000 people. https://t.co/0m0syf2sHA pic.twitter.com/TKKAwlT8aG
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 30, 2023
There isn’t much time for performative bullshit artists like Jeffrey Evely and the people paying him right now.