UNTIL recently Canada was not known for the type of nutty anti-government movement that is a staple of life in the United States. That has changed because of a bizarre and protracted dispute between a landlord and a tenant in Calgary, Alberta.It started as an ordinary row. The tenant, Andreas Pirelli, refused to pay his rent. But then, said his landlady, he declared that he was a “Freeman-on-the-Land”; that the house was now the First Nations Sovran Embassy of Earth; and that she no longer had any rights to it. Reporters were told they could interview Mr Pirelli if they produced C$5m ($4.8m) in gold. In the end he was arrested and she got her property back.Mr Pirelli is one of a growing number of Canadians who try to avoid financial obligations by claiming to be Freemen, Detaxers, followers of Moorish Law, members of the Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International or of other assorted groups. The Law Society of British Columbia, which represents lawyers in the province, estimates that 30,000 Canadians now share these allegiances. Each group has its own peculiarities, but all contend that the government has no authority over them (including the power of...
via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21587804-american-style-anti-government-eccentrics-take-root-canada-freeloaders-land?fsrc=rss|ame
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