The Weight of the Maple Leaf

Rajwinder Singh has until 08 June 2023 to pay a ten-thousand-dollar fine levied against him for operating a drone during September 2022’s Chetamon wildfire—a blaze touched-off by lightning in the mountains of Alberta, Canada’s Jasper National Park. The fine is the largest ever issued for illegal drone operation on Canadian parkland.

Singh, during a 08 December court appearance, pleaded guilty to the charge of operating an aircraft without a permit under the Aircraft Access Regulations of the Canada National Parks Act.

After the fashion of increasingly overreaching federal legislation enacted under controversial Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada’s National Parks Act renders drone flight in Canadian national parks illegal and punishable by fines of up to $25,000.

Singh was taking aerial photographs of friends when he was apprehended by Parks Canada law enforcement officers. Prior to throwing the proverbial book at him, public prosecutor Dawn Poskocil remarked of Singh: “He was not aware of drone regulations or the fact that he was in Jasper National Park.”

Singh’s drone and its memory cards were forfeited to the Crown, which looks upon drone flights in Canadian national parks as a risk to park visitors and staff, a disturbance to wildlife, and a potential source of negative experiences for others.

The severity of Singh’s monetary penalty is attributable to a confluence of unfortunate factors deriving primarily of the Chetamon wildfire—which at the time of Singh’s luckless drone flight was burning a mere five-kilometers from the spot at which he was brought low by the Parks Canada constabulary. Canadian Air Regulations stipulate that it is illegal to fly any unauthorized aircraft, including drones, within nine kilometers of a wildfire.

What’s more, unbeknownst to Singh, his drone flight forced the grounding of several firefighting helicopters engaged in bucketing water to the Chetamon blaze. Subject helicopters remained grounded for over an hour—during which frontline firefighting crews were allegedly without an escape route from the advancing flames.

Drones, within the context of Canadian sensibilities, are considered uncontrolled aircraft, the presence of which precludes pilots and aircrews from undertaking flight operations.

Dave Argument, appositely named Parks Canada resource conservation officer, blustered: “This is a deadly serious matter … Suddenly, we’re grounded and we lose our ability to action the fire while those machines are on the ground.”

Decrying the steady increase of drone sightings in Canadian national parks, Argument warned: “It is really on the user to understand what the regulations are, what they can’t do and what they can do with these new tools that are becoming so widely available, and the consequences of their actions.”

Argument fretted that Singh’s wasn’t even the most serious of the four instances of illegal drone use prosecuted in the wake of the Chetamon wildfire. According to Argument, one individual flew a drone directly over the wildfire zone, and others flew in proximity to such.

Of late, Canada’s Parliament has favored confiscation as a means of asserting its will over the nation’s citizenry. That drones may presently join those implements of personal freedom already torn from the possession of the Canadian populace and summarily declared illegal is possible.

FMI: www.parl.ca