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Enforce leash laws

Civil disobedience is hardly the response you might expect from the situation in sleepy little Parksville.

The Stephen Harper regime offered Canadians plenty of reasons to practise civil disobedience, but this is hardly the response you might expect from the situation in sleepy little Parksville.

Residents are blatantly disobeying a city bylaw in local parks.

On the walking trail on my own little patch in Parksville, I’ve watched residents become increasingly disobedient as they unleash their dog for outings on the walking path even though it is clearly signed: “on leash only.”

The practice is clearly in contravention of the bylaw. There is a perfectly adequate “off-leash” park almost adjacent.

I like a well-trained dog as much as anyone, but these canines bound up to you feigning attack while barking with paws all over you, thereby driving some people off the path.

And the city sits by quite contentedly bringing further deterioration to the trail.

Is it not time we began behaving like mature adults and sharing the trail with a modicum of respect for our neighbours and the city’s bylaw, even though the city is reluctant to enforce its own bylaw?

Stan GauthierParksville