Cases and Problems charter 5 Business and Civil Law - BCTA-101-0NC

1. The federal government operated a program under which it leased land to Aboriginal Canadians. It entered into one such lease with David Cardinal, a member of the River Valley Band. Shortly afterwards, however, several other members of that band began to harass Cardinal by using their trucks to block access to that property, allowing their cattle to stray onto the land, and, despite his repeated objections, hunting on his land. Cardinal believes that they did so to frighten him into terminating his lease with the government. If that happened, the other members of the band would be able to lease the land themselves. When he confronted them with that allegation, one of their group replied, "We haven't done anything wrong. But if you can't stand the heat, maybe you should just get out of the kitchen!" Does Cardinal have a cause of action in intimidation? Do you have enough information to answer that question?