Next time you sing a song or hammer a nail, you might want to first check to make sure youâre not breaking the law.
While those activities are legal at all times in most parts of Canada, thatâs not the case everywhere.
Each of the countryâs approximately 3,700 municipalities is able to create bylaws that prohibit certain activities.
Breaking a bylaw wonât land you in jail. Penalties are more likely to take the form of fines, which can vary wildly based on the community and the offence.
Anyone caught ice skating on a road in Wetaskiwin, Alta, for example, . The city also bans its residents from doing anything to any animal, with penalties rising from $100 for a first offence to $500 for a third.
Teasing animals is allowed in most circumstances in Red Deer, Alta. â unless the animal is a cat that happens to be caught in a cat trap. and youâll be facing a fine of $510.
Human laws for animals
Animals are often the subjects of some of Canadaâs more unusual bylaws â like in Gander, N.L., where a $20 fine can be issued to the owner of .
Many communities ban their citizens from feeding wild animals, albeit with exceptions for bird feeders and the like. Stratford, Ont. might be the only city to specifically state that its ban on feeding wild animals .
People who own household pets, meanwhile, are usually risking fines if their animals chase strangers or make noises that disturb them. Doggie doo is often a problem addressed through bylaws, with Tisdale, Sask. being particular strict. Dog owners in that city must from their properties each day, unless they want to deal with fines that can reach $250 per offence.
Tisdale also requires female dogs to be kept inside when they are in heat. Many communities have similar guidelines. Estevan, Sask. has a somewhat looser rule: Dogs in heat there are allowed outside .
Parks and recreation
Mostly, though, bylaws govern the activities of people â sometimes with surprising specificity. Victoriaâs street entertainment bylaw lays out distinct rules for to follow. Two bagpipers canât be playing on city streets at the same time, for example, and balloon artists cannot demand payment for their work.
Elsewhere in Victoria, the cityâs outlaws anyone from using the cityâs tennis courts or lawn bowling greens while wearing high heels. But the B.C. capital doesnât prohibit âboisterous conductâ or swearing in parks, both of which are in Summerside, P.E.I. Things are taken one step further in the parks of Calgary, where itâs against the law to outside of areas where sports, performances and so forth are specifically allowed.
Back in Estevan, anyone using a park should know that the city forbids them from there. There are many bylaws that, similar to that one, seem to have been created in response to a specific incident or a fear of a specific incident. Dawson City, Yukon has : If youâre there, itâs illegal to destroy a highway, to transport material which would be likely to âimperilâ people living nearby, and to build a pipeline across a highway without written permission.
Rules of the road
Highways and roads are among the topics most frequently covered in bylaws. While provinces and territories look after driversâ licences and behaviours, municipalities are able to set rules governing the use of local streets and sidewalks.
Thatâs why taxi drivers in Halifax must keep a why bicycles and tricycles can be impounded in Snow Lake, Man., if their owners havenât paid their annual , and why itâs illegal to pedestrians in Edmonton.
In Gander, when bylaw officers arenât handing out tickets to the owners of plant-destroying cats, they might be keeping an eye out for anyone parked within 200 metres of an active fire. , as is throwing tacks on a highway.
Legalities aside, throwing tacks on a highway isnât a particularly good way to spend oneâs time. Better to hang out at a playground, right? In Gander, that isnât particularly easy either. The town to children under the age of 10 and adults accompanying them.
Parking lots donât have age limits â but you could run into trouble there, too. In Red Lake, Ont., playing a game in any municipal parking area will leave you with a $100 fine.
Sounding off
(Negative Space / Pexels)
Like most municipalities, Red Lake also prohibits certain loud noises which can annoy people â but its list of outlawed sounds is far more specific than some.
Red Lake residents canât, for example, use a hammer or saw
Shouting, whistling and singing are banned during those hours as well â which still leaves its residents with more freedom to make noise than people in Myers Lake, Ont., have. That community enacted a 24/7 ban on those sounds earlier this year.
In Jasper, Alta., meanwhile, motorized lawnmowers canât be used on weekends
While itâs normal for municipalities to ban some things at night that are OK during the day, one part of the in Souris, P.E.I., is a bit of a head-scratcher. People there are not allowed to ring doorbells or knock on doors at night with intent âto disturb or annoy any personâ â but no such restriction exists before 10 p.m.
An odd clause in the noise bylaws of several Ontario communities, including and , creates exceptions for any ânewsboy, peddler, hawker or petty tradesmanâ who is âplying his calling legitimately and moderately.â
Dredging up a dead horse
One story about a Toronto bylaw has been repeated so often and for so long that it is hard not to think of it whenever the topic of bizarre municipal regulations comes up.
Canadaâs largest city, the story goes, has a bylaw stopping its citizens from dragging dead horses down Yonge Street on Sundays.
It stands to reason, right? Yonge has long been considered the cityâs main street, and anyone dragging a dead horse down it would be inconveniencing other road users. Additionally, Toronto long considered Sundays sacred, outlawing Sunday sports and forcing movie theatres to close on Sundays into the 1950s.
However, when asked by CTVNews.ca if Toronto banned the dragging of dead horses on Yonge, city staff said they could find no evidence of such a regulation. Whatâs more, they couldnât find a reference to such a rule in the bylaws of any of the six municipalities that merged to form Toronto in 1997.
But for anyone reading that and thinking about grabbing the nearest dead horse and heading to Yonge Street, a word of caution: Various municipal and provincial regulations would seem to make that activity illegal even if it is not specifically mentioned.
If that fabled bylaw is in fact a fable, then maybe people will stop beating that dead horse. And never start dragging it.
Map icons designed by Jesse Tahirali / CTVNews.ca
