The Right to Exclude and the Preservation of a Community

The issue of various Buddhist groups operating in PEI and buying land has been a contentious issue in PEI for over a decade now. The difficulty that I see, is that this topic touches on key fundamental aspects of ordinary life and requires deep introspection in order to understand. Unfortunately, the majority of political discourse takes place on a very superficial level, which leaves people grasping for answers.

While the debate has mostly focused on land acquisition and the Lands Protection Act (LPA), my belief is that this strife can best be understood if we examine the issue through the lens of community.

Humans evolved to be social creatures; more than anything, it’s our ability to cooperate that ensures our survival. Communities of like-minded individuals are the natural result of this cooperation. In rural areas, people often come to identify themselves by their community. If they feel their community is under attack and in danger, the experience can feel as real as a home invasion.

This is certainly the perception of a growing number of people in Eastern PEI in regards to the Buddhist groups and Asian investors purchasing land. They feel they are losing their community and, unsurprisingly, are not happy about it.

Here we have the clash of two competing belief systems. One group believes in open borders and upholds a belief that Island communities should be some sort of blank slate where other communities get to imprint themselves on them; a view best expressed by the leader of the Opposition Hal Perry as “we have to welcome everyone with open arms, regardless of their culture or beliefs.”

The other side of this debate does not believe in this mantra. They have standards for who they want as neighbors and take pride in their history and preservation of their way of life.  

Rural communities represent one of the few remaining bastions of conservatism and freedom left in our society, which is why the forces of socialism are using amalgamation and immigration to destroy them. If socialists have used inclusion as their flag to rally around, then conservatives must embrace exclusion as the remedy.

The right to exclusion is merely a natural extension of property rights. In regards to land, this right makes it the prerogative of the owner to decide who can access the land and how they can use it. Hans-Herman Hoppe is the theorist most responsible for expanding on this right and essentially making the case that each community, using the right of exclusion, should have the final say on deciding who gets to immigrate into it.

The issue that I see is that in PEI, it’s the Cabinet that makes this decision, not local community members. And to make matters worse, their decisions are shrouded in secrecy. When a whistleblower asked Premier King about setting up rules or regulations that could guide Cabinet in regards to which non-residents could buy land, the Premier simply replied that by having no rules then nobody could accuse his government of breaking the rules (Canada Under Siege, 114).

Some detractors have stated that certain people on the Island are still too traditional, or nativist, or xenophobic: that’s why the Buddhists are facing such opposition in Eastern communities in PEI. My retort to that is to simply look and contrast how the Amish and Buddhist groups have been received.

Both communities started to move into Eastern PEI almost at the same time and purchased land at the same time. By almost all accounts, both groups were warmly received when they arrived. However, over time the Buddhists began to lose support, while the Amish did not; this begs the question, why?

I believe the Amish were honest in their intentions. They said they wanted a quiet place to farm and practice their way of life and have abided by that. The Buddhists preached the same message, but over time their monasteries kept expanding while monks, nuns, and laity members all started buying huge parcels of land and businesses. This is not at all what most community members expected. These Buddhist groups have now been caught in numerous lies and it’s not unreasonable to expect the communities in Eastern PEI to be outraged. In my view, trust has been broken on such a fundamental level that this is no longer about land limits. Groups such as GEBIS and GWBI and anyone linked to these organizations should not be allowed to have even one acre, let alone three thousand.