Friday, April 23, 2010

Good neighbour fences



Nimby City, like many other communities, has a bye-law to prevent neighbours, good, bad or indifferent, from building fences, ugly or otherwise, which are more than 6 feet tall... but apparently there is no such equivalent regulation to prevent hedges being grown to a ridiculous stature. In fact some cedar hedges are so tall, and so broad, that they would make shepherds in Africa very proud if they had such structures to protect their flocks from marauding lions and tigers.

Can you imagine a more effective way to block your good neighbour's view, or to make a life long enemy. Talk about the Hatfields and McCoys. I bet the origin of their famous feud was about the height of one of their hedges, and in reality it had nothing at all to do with murder, or the American Civil War, as legend would have us believe. (The McCoys fought on the Union side and the Hatfields were Confederates.)

In more recent times there have been many recorded incidents of neighbours getting out there with their little old chain saws in the middle of the night, or at least during the absence of their malevolent neighbours, and solving the problems for themselves. Why does the law take such a dim view of such a practice? If one individual has purchased a property because of its magnificent view, and some bloke comes along later and blocks that view, surely the offended party should have the right under the law to plead self-defence (pun intended), after cutting the offending obstruction down to size.

Now there's a real man's hedge! And yes Matilda, there is a house hidden away in there!

Perhaps it's just as well that Canada's firearm laws are stricter than those of our "good neighbours" to the south. Although, if you're a member of a gang, or have a marijuana grow op to protect, the laws seem to make remarkably little difference if you really want an uzi or some similar toy... 
                                                                                            national gun registry not withstanding.

(To be continued in my next blog)

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