In August 2025, Telegram channels reported that Canadian authorities had banned local residents from walking in the forests, and one man who violated this restriction had already been fined almost 29,000 Canadian dollars. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
“Meanwhile, in the Canadian concentration camp, a man was given a fine of $28,872 for going into the forest. Jeff Evely just walked into a forest belt in Nova Scotia,” says a post published on August 10 by the Telegram channel “Sanya in Florida"(507,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). The channel presented the news a little differently “Banksta"(83,000 views): "In one of the provinces of Canada, a fine of $25,000 was introduced for visiting the forest. As a protest, one Canadian deliberately went into a grove near the natural inspection, and he was fined $28,000.” Publications on the same topic can be found in Facebook And X.
At the beginning of August in Canada, data authorities, about 700 forest fires were raging, and since the beginning of the year, the fire has destroyed more than 66,000 square meters. km of forest plantations. Although forest fires are common in this country, by 2025 experts will already called one of the worst on record. Especially strong suffered western and central regions of Canada.
To reduce the risk of fires, authorities in the eastern province of Nova Scotia temporarily banned in the forests there are hiking, camping, fishing and ATV riding. The restriction is in effect until October 15, but may be lifted earlier if weather conditions permit. Violation of the ban entails a fine of 25,000 Canadian dollars (about 18,000 US dollars). Similar restrictions have already been introduced in Nova Scotia in 2023, 2016 and 2001 years, and now they operate, for example, in the neighboring province New Brunswick.
Explaining the authorities' decision, Nova Scotia Governor Tim Houston referred to weather forecasters who predict hot and dry weather will continue in the near future. According to the official, a ban on walking in the forest is a small price to pay for minimizing the risk of fires and especially casualties. Houston recalled that two years ago, when forest fires also engulfed Canada, fire destroyed more than 200 homes in Nova Scotia.
Although the ban is temporary and does not apply to beaches, parks and designated camping areas, its implementation in Nova Scotia caused activists' dissatisfaction. They call the authorities' decision overkill and believe that it may contradict Canadian laws.
One of these activists is a Canadian Army veteran Jeff Evely. He also protested against a similar ban imposed due to forest fires in 2023, and even went to court, claiming that the authorities’ decision violated his rights and demanding that it be declared invalid. Then the claim was not considered, because by that time the ban had already expired, and Eveli was not fined for violating it.
When the fire situation repeated itself two years later, the man decided to do something different. On August 8 he published on his Facebook page a video showing him violating the ban on visiting forests. Before this, Evely talks with representatives of the environmental service, to whom he directly explains: he wants to receive a fine in order to later challenge it in court, and does not want to create any problems for his interlocutors. They remind Eveli about the ban, but he still goes into the forest. The final part of the video shows the man being fined nearly 29,000 Canadian dollars, including taxes.
Let us note that Eveli is not just an activist, but also a politician. In April he participated in the national parliamentary elections from far-right People's Party, but in its own constituency dialed only 1.2% of the vote and took fifth place. After Evely received a fine, he willingly spoke about his action to various media: from the Canadian public broadcaster CBC to the project InfoWars, repeatedly caught in the spread of conspiracy theories. If he didn’t like some publication materials, Evely actively criticized them on his social networks, and called his opponents propagandists, idiots and dumbasses.
Thus, many Internet users who spoke about a fine for visiting a forest in Canada significantly distorted real events. The ban was indeed introduced, but only temporarily - due to the risk of forest fires, and such a severe punishment is provided only in one of the Canadian provinces. The man in the news tried to challenge such measures the last time they were taken two years ago, but then the court refused to consider his claim due to the lack of a fine - and therefore this time the activist received one specifically.
Cover photo: Facebook screenshot
- CBC. Is Nova Scotia going too far by banning people from woods during dry weather? Some think so
- Myths about forest fires: are peatlands to blame, does aviation help and is it necessary to extinguish everything?
- Is it true that Los Angeles firefighters put out fires by putting water in handbags?
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