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Kanu Links
The Right to Travel
a River and to Portage
If you canoe in Ontario, you are likely to use portages to get you around
obstacles, and you may wonder whether you are allowed to use them. As a rule of thumb, on
public land which includes the Provincial and National Parks, you are free to proceed. On
private land, ask for permission.
The Ontario Public Lands Act (March 31, 1997),
Chapter P43, Item 65(4) defines the Public's right
to portage:
"Where public lands over which a portage has existed or
exists have been heretofore or are hereafter sold or otherwise disposed of..., any person
traveling on waters connected by the portage has the right to pass over and along the
portage with the person's effects without the permission of or a payment to the owner of
the lands, and any person who obstructs, hinders, delays or interferes with the exercise
of such right of passage is guilty of an offence..." |
| Ontario Supreme Court Ruling on the Reed dam
of the Credit River, at Norval: the right to portage is denied because a dam was built
where there was no portage before. Tough, eh? So, stand up to anyone trying to build a dam
across your favorite river! |
| Ruling of Hosaic Creek, in eastern Ontario, as
being a navigable waterway. You gotta share with hunters, though. Lots of legalese,
but also some neat statement of the use of Ontario's creeks by Iroquois natives. |
| Ruling on Bronte Creek, west of Toronto, as
being navigable. There are many references to other legal
cases, including some of the US references |
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Many thanks to Jim Greenacre for giving me the ugly details of the Credit
River case, and to Richard Culpeper for making proper legal search documents available.
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