Editor:
Sept. 10, our little group of five kayakers had a very unpleasant experience at Camp Latona on Gambier Island.
As soon as we landed on the beach in front of the camp we were greeted by a person who told us we were on private property and couldn’t land our kayaks there for our lunch break. This person was adamant that the entirety of the beach – i.e. including the part below the high water mark – was private property and that “Camp Latona” had been granted a “document” with the right to refuse beach access to all non-users of the camp facilities.
We were quite shocked to hear this as we all thought that in our country, marine beach/shore lands are deemed public lands below the high-water mark. We argued a bit but as the Latona person was decidedly unwelcoming and stood by her “private beach” claim, we reluctantly decided to go have lunch somewhere else.
My question is: were we in our right to question the legitimacy of this person’s claim that the entirety of the beach in front of Camp Latona is private and off limits to non-customers of the camp? And if the camp has a special derogation to the high-water mark policy, why is that? Is this the case for all similar camps in the area?
Paulette Caillé, Sechelt
