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ARTICLE · 20 APRIL 2022

Claim For Riparian Rights To Access Lake Erie Dismissed

Gardiner Roberts LLP
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Rivers and lakes in Ontario are Crown lands and the public generally has the right to use and ‘navigate' the waterways. However, the public does not generally have the right to traverse privately-owned property to...

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
James R.G. Cook
James R.G. Cook
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Rivers and lakes in Ontario are Crown lands and the public generally has the right to use and 'navigate' the waterways. However, the public does not generally have the right to traverse privately-owned property to access the water. Disputes may arise between property owners as to where the boundaries of private lands end and the publicly-useable waterways begin. 

In Donnelly et al v. Guyconhud Inc., 2022 ONSC 1774 (CanLII), the plaintiffs and the defendants bought adjacent properties in Port Burwell on the northern shore of Lake Erie. The plaintiffs' land was separated from Lake Erie by a 'tongue' of land extending along the lakeshore from the defendant's property. There was a breakwall on the defendants' property but the high water mark of the lake fluctuated at times. Periodically, the lake flooded onto the plaintiffs' land and ponded there.

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