Ottawa teen given $125 ticket for skating on pond
CTV
An Ottawa teenager got an unpleasant surprise while skating on a local pond on Sunday: a $125 ticket.
A typical weekend for Eric Ledain means a little homework, then some hockey on the beaver pond in Kanata.
But on Sunday, the teen got an unpleasant surprise. While he was skating on the ice with his dog, an Ottawa Bylaw officer asked him to leave, then gave him a $125 ticket for trespassing.
“It’s an absurd ticket and I don’t know why they would be shutting down such a nice place,” Ledain said. “It’s a great place for the community, and it’s a place where family and friends can have lots of fun and bond together.”
The Beaver Pond in Kanata Lakes has been a gathering place for the community for decades. Neighbours say before amalgamation, the old city of Kanata maintained a skating surface on the pond, even having coloured flags indicating ice conditions.
Once the new city of Ottawa stopped maintaining it the community came together and started looking after it themselves.
Duro Oravsky, one of the volunteers who looks after the ice, says they clear and flood the ice regularly and check its thickness. This weekend it was 24 inches thick, he said.
"There’s about 10 core guys that come out here and help out," Oravsky said. “Our own kids skate out here, so we want to make sure everything is safe.”
