Young Writers Society

In Quesnel, B.C., it is still a legal requirement to have an outside privy, at least 20 feet (6 metres) from your house, but not more than 100 feet (30 metres). The privy has to be "fly tight," too. Do they have indoor plumbing in Quesnel? They do. But the privy bylaw still stands.

In 1997 the margarine police caught a grocery story in Alma, Quebes, with butter-coloured margarine in stock. It is illegal in Quebec for margarine to be the same colour as butter. The grocer had to remove the margarine from his shelves.
Quebec is the only place in North America, possibly the world, where this law still remains in force, but margarine has been banned before. In 1886 margarine of any colour was banned from the whole of Canada. It took a Privy Council decision to overturn that law in 1948.
The tempest in a tub continued to rage in Quebed. In 1953 the Quebes government even tried to introduce a law rewarding people for snitching on their neighbours. It was illegal to have margarine in your own home fridge!
It costs about $100,000 a month for Quebec to produce non-butter-coloured margarine. Butter-coloured imports are banned, too.

(Pretty silly, isn't it?)

It is illegal to smoke in a federal workplace. Smoke and you face a fine of $50. But there's another catch: If your bosses "fail to ensure persons do not smoke" they face a fine of $500. It seems as if it's almost better to be the offender than the offender's employer - it costs less. (But, other than the smell, how does one "fail to ensure persons do not smoke" if they have no proof of a person doing it. Meaning, don't they have to know who smoked in order to have to pay the $500 fine for not stopping him? I just made it sound confusing, didn't I?)

You may not display flags without written permission on Parliament Hill. Fly them anyway, and you could be fined $75.

It is forbidden to possess a slingshot in a wildlife area in national parks, even if you don't use it. Having it in your back pocket or pack can cost you $200.

It's forbidden to bring a bicycle or an animal onto Toronto streetcars, buses or subways during morning and evening rush hours on weekdays, or at any other time that the vehicles are "heavily loaded."
You and your pet will have to wait, unless it's a seeing-eye or hearing-ear dog. If you squeeze on anyway, you may have to pay a fine between $100 and $500.

You may not cut down more than one tree a year that's over 8 inches (20 centimetres) in width in your own yard, without a permit, in Vancouver. Sizable trees in Toronto get similar protection. And in Winnipeg, if the tree is large than 10 centimetres in diameter, it cannot be transplanted. But Charlottetown, P.E.I., takes the tree-hugger prize - there it's a violation to injure any tree.

It is unlawful to drive a dog ot dog team on a sidewalk of a settlement in the Northwest Territories.

Cattle, sheep, pigs or poultry could be driven through the streets of Edmonton, but bulls, stallions, boars, rams and he-goats had to be roped or bridled and held by someone.

Just for the heck of breaking Dynamo's role,

It's illegal in Spokane, Washington to sell suckers to children under the age of 9.

Wait... that's not a Canadian law, though.

Whatever.

Interesting...


It is illegal to release ten or more ballons inflated with lighter-than-air gases within a twenty-four-hour period in any City of Toronto park.

People over 16 years of age were forbidden to use the playground equipment in Grande Prairie, Alberta.

It used to be an offence to fasten a horse or other animal to a tree or shrub in Toronto. Nailing your hammock into a tree in a Toronto park is forbidden, too.

It used to be illegal for men to refuse to work, without pay, on local highways, as "statutory labor," a standard part of life in most places in Canada in the late 1800s.
The Nova Scotia statutes of 1873 outlined it: "Every male between the ages of 16 and 60, being able to do a reasonable day's work, shall be liable to perform two day's labor as a poll tax," on six days notice. The men were expected to bring their own tools. If a man owned property, more work was required. If a property was assessed as being worth $4000, 12 days of labor were added to the poll tax. A man could pay the roads commissioners instead of working, at 50 cents per day (which was a lot of money back then, mind you.). If he didn't pay in advance, the cost went up to 60 cents a day.

It is against the law to drive and aircraft along a highway in Ontario, unless it complies with all the rules of the Highway Traffic Act.

It used to be an offence to let your gate swing open across any sidewalk in Calgary.

Some country I live in. You know, half the time the government has the wrong priorities, and the other half we either don't trust what they are doing or don't like the way they are going about it.

At least we don't get as many homicides as the U.S. OOOOOH! Somebody stop me!


Street hockey is a violation in Mount Royal and in Montreal, Quebec.

Public shows where animals perform tricks to entertain people are illegal in Oak Bay (a district in Victoria, B.C.) unless the animals are horses, dogs or ponies. This means that bears in tutus riding bicycles, or tigers in cages, are not allowed. Animals cannot be exploited for profit.

There used to be a reward of $20 for catching or helping catch a horse thief in the County or York, Ontario, but only if the thief was found guilty. (Again, $20 was a lot of money back then.)

Don't let your pet rat escape in Oak Bay, B.C. It's illegal to let rodents "run at large."

You may not establish a pigsty within 50 feet (about 15 metres) of a public place in Halifax County, Nova Scotia.