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The “Save Frank Meyers Farm” movement is quickly becoming an international endeavor.
The 85-year-old Ontario farmer and supporters have been fighting the federal government for seven years, trying to prevent his land from being taken over by the military. The farmland has been in his family since before the confederation of Canada, given to them 216 years ago by King George III himself – the same king who opposed US independence. They still have the deed, which says the property is theirs “perpetually.” If the government is successful, his cherished property will be expropriated in order to expand a nearby military base.
Last November the elderly farmer reportedly signed an agreement to give up his land, saying he felt extreme pressure from the Canadian government to do so. Others, though, say the property battle isn’t over.
The Canadian Department of National Defense took control of the farmland in part a year ago. Government officials asserted possession of the farm buildings but allowed Frank Meyers to still live in the family home along the railroad tracks.
He grows peas, corn, beans, oats, barley, and hay on the land.
Lisa Gibson, the founder of the Save Frank Meyers Farm Facebook group, said the government has crossed the line:
This is the only thing Frank’s ever known, and if he loses his reason for getting up in the morning, he’ll die. I called Frank, asked him if I could do this, and he said, ‘Anything that you could do to help me would be appreciated.’ [I understand why he signed considering the pressure] However, I wish we could have kept fighting because I really feel we were this close to winning it.
Frank told Canadian media:
I didn’t want to sell, I constantly told them and told them. They told me if I didn’t sign now, I wouldn’t get half the money if I went and hired a judge. I want them out of here, I need some rest, I’ve got to get some peace. It’s going to kill me.
Ontario resident Allison Billings wrote a letter to Queen Elizabeth on Frank Meyers’ behalf.
One of the most comprehensive series of lectures on the Constitution ever produced!
“I wrote the Queen because the land was given to his forefathers by King George, it was her family that gave it to him,” Billings said. “We know it’s a long shot, but here’s hoping that the voices carry enough weight.”
Conservative MP Rick Norlock stated that the Crown never reversed the original property grant and that other farmers experienced expropriations in their respective regions as well.
Said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
Farmlands and people’s homes are special, but in the end you have to look at the greater good. This expropriation and the bringing in of this unit will go a long way to accommodate the health and safety of the people of Quinte West.
Anytime a politician starts tossing about terms like the “greater good” you just know some unsuspecting individual is about to get the short end of the stick.
Something like this could not happen in America, right? Wrong. You could own your land outright, but recent eminent domain incidents prove that the dirt beneath your feet is never truly yours – not if the government decides it has a “better” use for the business or acreage. As previously reported by Off The Grid News, a World War II veteran in New Jersey has been denied the right to rebuild his story after Hurricane Sandy. Additionally, three Wyoming towns are being “relocated” onto Wind River Indian Reservation. Neither the governor nor local mayors were even informed by the EPA that such a move was being considered, and they only learned that property owners were no longer state residents when fielding calls from the news media.
Frank Meyers was reportedly sitting on some of the most fertile farmland in Canada. It is now about to all get bulldozed and buried under rock.
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