Morgan and Jacobson v Attorney General for Prince Edward Island

• Author: Margaret McCallum
• Pages: 193-221

ﾅﾍﾇ

MorganandJacobsonvAttorneyGeneral

forPrinceEdwardIsland

MargaretMcCallum

I F    couple from FloridaMelvi n and SylviaGri n were

orderedtopaynesofclosetoforpurchasingthroughanintermedi

aryacresseventysixhectaresoflandonPrinceEdwardIslandAsnon

residents the Grins needed Cabinet approval to acquire more than ve

acresoflandormorethanfeetofshorefrontage The LandsProtectionAct

LPAwhichtheGrinsviolatedhadsurvivedaCharterchallengeinthe

Islandcourtsinthes In two earlier cases, almost a century apart, the

Supreme Court of Canada had rejected landowners’ challenges to Island

legislation limiting the exte ntof i ndividualla nd holdingsI n the rst of

theseinthenewlyestablishedSupremeCourtupheldIslandlegisla

tioncompellingresidentandnonresidentownersofmorethanacresto

sell their estates to the government.

In MorganandJacobsonvAorneyGeneralforPrinceEdwardIslandthe

Supreme Court again upheld the right of the provincial legislature to rest rict

therightofnonresidentindividualstoholdIslandland This chapter tells

the story of the Morgan case.

Histor ical Context

A   major component ofwhat ni neteenthcentury

IslandersreferredtoasthelandquestionAftertheTreatyofParis

when France transferred sovereignty over what became Prince Edward Island

MargaretMcCallum

toGreatBritaintheimperialgovernmentdividedtheIslandintosixtyseven

lotsortownshipsofaboutacreseachandallocatedallbutoneof

theseinasingledaytoaboutindividualsThegranteeswererequiredto

assumetherisksandbenetsofpopulatingtheirlotswithimmigrantsand

manychosetorentlandstoselersratherthangrantingfreeholdsForthe

next century, Islanders tried various means to persuade proprietors to con

vert leasehold grants to freeholds. Restrictions on the r ights of aliens to hold

land were part of the received law in the British North American colonies,

but these did not apply to proprietors who remained in the United Kingdom,

asmanydidInPrinceEdwardIslandmodiedtheserestrictionsset

tingaacrelimitonalienlandholdingsThecampaignagainstthepro

prietorialsystemcontinueduntilwhentheIslandbythenaCanadian

province, enacted legislation to expropriate large private land holdings. Al

thoughbytheproprietorwiththelargestholdingslivedontheIsland

those who opposed monopoly control of land often strengthened their a rgu

ments by invoking the image of absentee owners living o the labour of

Islanders.

That image continues to resonate with Islanders, and is invoked in con

temporary policy debates over how Islanders should protect their land base.

TheSpeechfromtheThroneattheopeningoftheLegislatureinforex

ample, referred to the “long, tempestuous and sometimes, passionate history

connected with our land and our people’s relationship to the land . . . the cit

izensofPrinceEdwardIslandindividuallyandthroughtheirGovernment

arepreparedtoutilizethelessonsofhistoryanddealwiththeproblemsof

land use and land ownership in a resolute and vigorous fashion.” For Isla nd

politicians, one lesson of this h istory was that voters, who would resist restric

tions on what they considered to be their rights as la ndowners, would support

dierentrulesfornonresidentsRichardAlanMorganandAlanMaxJacob

sonAmericancitizenswholivedinRochesterNewYorklearnedthatlesson

inwhentheyaemptedtopurchasethirtysixacresfourteenandahalf

hectares) of wooded land on an unpaved road in Prince County, about three

miles from Cedar Dunes Provincial Park. Sol Mednick, the registered owner,

had purchased the land t he previous year from Eleanor MacWilliams.

NonResidentLandOwnershipinthes

MMarvi n Taylor, owned Canadian Estate Land Cor

poration, which marketed vacant rural land in Canada as recreational lots.