102 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
102 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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created_at: '2016-12-25T21:04:49.000Z'
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title: "'All I wanted to do is build a house' (2010)"
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url: https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/all-i-wanted-to-do-is-build-a-house/article4346687/
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author: wallflower
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points: 262
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story_text:
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 244
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1482699889
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_wallflower
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- story_13255433
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objectID: '13255433'
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year: 2010
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---
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It was the fifth house that Craig Morrison built with his own hands, and
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the last. He had built things with his own hands for 70 years, often
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using lumber he produced at his own small sawmill. Now he would build a
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modest, single-storey house where he could look after his wife, Irene,
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suffering from Alzheimer's. He would do the work himself, of course.
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Didn't everyone in New Brunswick? "I'm not flush with money," he
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explains now. "I didn't want to go into debt."
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Thus it was that Mr. Morrison broke ground three years ago - at 88 - for
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a bungalow on land overlooking the Bay of Fundy near St. Martins, a
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seaside village east of Saint John. And thus it was that Mr. Morrison
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got into trouble with the law for the first time in his life.
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In the past two years, building inspectors have hauled Mr. Morrison into
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court six times, each appearance more harrowing than the last. A couple
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of weeks ago, the provincial agency that employs building inspectors
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demanded that the court forcibly remove Craig and Irene Morrison from
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their home, that the house be bulldozed, and that Mr. Morrison be found
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in contempt of court - meaning, almost certainly, imprisonment.
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Story continues below advertisement
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Mr. Morrison worked long hours into his 92nd year, fixing the
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inspectors' long lists of defects. But for the court, he made his
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position clear: He would not vacate the house. If the court found him in
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contempt, he would go to jail.
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In a memorable account of these proceedings, New Brunswick
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Telegraph-Journal writer Marty Klinkenberg reported Mr. Morrison's
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lament: "I thought this was a free country, that we had liberties and
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freedoms like we used to have, but I was sadly mistaken. … All I wanted
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to do is build a house, and I was treated as if I was some kind of
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outlaw."
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Building inspector Wayne Mercer found many things wrong with Mr.
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Morrison's house - although it wasn't obvious that the building-code
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infractions he cited made it particularly unsafe. He noticed that Mr.
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Morrison's lumber - custom-sawn - did not carry the requisite stickers.
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The windows did not carry the requisite stickers, either. The roof
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trusses and floor joists, he thought, were questionable. He wanted the
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ceilings torn out, drywall removed and wall studs replaced.
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"\[The inspectors\]seemed to find fault with everything I did," Mr.
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Morrison said. "They were out to get me because I was doing it with my
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own land and my own lumber and my own trusses and floor joists in my own
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time."
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At one point, a professional home builder, Raymond Debly, volunteered to
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do an independent inspection. He determined that the house exceeded the
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requirements of the National Building Code. It was "built like a fort."
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The lumber, old-growth spruce, was superior to any lumber on the market.
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("Some stamped lumber," he said, "shouldn't be used to build a
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doghouse.") The floors were double strength. ("You could walk an
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elephant across them.") And the trusses were fine. ("They were built the
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old-fashioned way," said Mr. Debly, himself 80, "the way we did it in
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the '60s.")
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Mr. Morrison's long struggle with an implacable bureaucracy came to a
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merciful end in a Saint John courtroom on Nov. 1 when Mr. Justice Hugh
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McLellan ordered the planning commission to negotiate a settlement with
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Mr. Morrison, saying, "I'm not going to order a 91-year-old man to jail
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and have his wife placed in a nursing home." The planning commission
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subsequently agreed to allow the Morrisons to live in their home,
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without further molestation, until they die.
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Son of a lumberman and cattle rancher, Craig Morrison comes from
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self-sufficient stock, the sturdy people who built this country with
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their own hands. He raised seven children (and has 14 grandchildren and
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eight great-grandchildren). Yet, government inspectors almost took him
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down.
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Story continues below advertisement
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Story continues below advertisement
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This is a true Canadian story, a cautionary tale of the tremendous power
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of the state over the individual in an age of pervasive bureaucracy. It
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is, indeed, a profound parable of irretrievably lost independence and
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casually forgotten freedoms.
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