For the second time in a month, police have arrested Frank Eckhardt, a controversial land seller and survivalist who advertises his advisory services to German-speaking “new settlers” in Cape Breton, and who featured in several German and Canadian media articles in the past two years because of his far-right views and alleged gouging of German […]
Controversial Cape Breton land seller Frank Eckhardt arrested, charged with extortion
Frank Eckhardt, the controversial land seller who advertises his advisory services to German-speaking “new settlers” in Cape Breton, and who featured in several media articles in 2020 because of his far-right views and alleged gouging of German clients, has been arrested and charged with extortion. In a press release today, the RCMP reported that Eckhardt, […]
Developers are selling off Cape Breton, one subdivision after the other, to German-speaking non-residents. What — if anything — is wrong with that?
It's not illegal to have extremist views, spread conspiracy theories, sell land to foreign buyers, or charge those buyers inflated prices for real estate in Nova Scotia. But there's no evidence those foreign buyers ever intend to move here, live here, or go through the immigration process that would allow them to do so.
Nova Scotia has long been a popular place for settlers, but in the last century it also became a popular place for non-residents — including many well-heeled Americans and Europeans — to purchase properties.[1] For decades, scholars and successive governments have debated the issue of non-resident land ownership in a province with relatively little Crown […]
Desmond Cole Reads the Local News
Desmond Cole is in Halifax this weekend, keynoting at the Media and the Law conference. At around midnight on Saturday after a long day, I sat down with Desmond and recorded his take on some of our local news stories. Here are the first two stories we spoke about. Some cuts have been made for […]