Beach O' Pines is a private gated community located on the shores of Lake Huron in

Lambton County Lambton County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which is drained by the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake Saint Cl ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is located immediately outside of the community of

Grand Bend Grand Bend is a community located on the shores of Lake Huron in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Municipality of Lambton Shores in Lambton County. History Grand Bend is situated on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron ...

, Ontario, and is bordered to the northwest by Lake Huron, the southwest by the Pinery Provincial Park, the northeast by the subdivision of Southcott Pines, and the southeast by the

Old Ausable Channel The Old Ausable Channel is a self-contained waterway in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada that runs through the Pinery Provincial Park and the community of Grand Bend. It is a 14 kilometre long river channel that was isolated from the Ausable Ri ...

, Highway #21, and the subdivision of Huron Woods.

Formation

In 1929, Frank Salter (a well-known

developer Developer may refer to: Computers * Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web d ...

from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

) and several friends found themselves in Grand Bend taking shelter from a storm. While there, he explored the surrounding countryside and identified a parcel that could be developed into a

luxury resort Luxury may refer to: *Luxury goods, an economic good or service for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises *Luxury tax, tax on products not considered essential, such as expensive cars **Luxury tax (sports), surcharge put ...

. He formed the Frank S. Salter Company Limited (headquartered in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

), which bought the land from the Canada Company. Because of the Great Depression, the company scaled back its original plans, and part of the land was subdivided into 35 parcels that were offered for sale together with a

right of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

over land held by Beach O'Pines Club Limited, for the purpose of ingress and egress from and to Highway 21 and the

shore A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

of Lake Huron. The purchasers established the Beach O'Pines Protective Association to improve the property and safeguard their interests.

Antisemitism and racism

''Noble v Alley''

Restrictive covenants were inserted by the developer in the deeds of transfer that limited ownership to the properties inside Beach O' Pines based upon ethnic origin until August 1962. In April 1948, Bernard Wolf signed an agreement to buy a cottage property in the community. A

title search In real estate business and law, a title search or property title search is the process of examining public records and retrieving documents on the history of a piece of real property to determine and confirm property's legal ownership, and find o ...

of the property by his lawyer revealed the restrictive covenant in the original property deed, that provided that the land could never be sold, used, occupied, or rented "by any person of the

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, Hebrew, Semitic,

Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

or coloured race or blood", and he applied to the courts to have it removed. The application was dismissed by Justice Schroeder, who held that the covenant was valid and enforceable. The covenant was upheld by the

Ontario Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal or ONCA) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto, also the seat of the Law Socie ...

. It was subsequently overturned however by the Supreme Court of Canada in a vote of six to one in '' Noble v Alley'' because the language used in the text was ambiguous. On July 11, 2021, the Beach O' Pines Association membership unanimously approved a Statement of Diversity & Inclusion:

Land disputes

When the Beach O' Pines development was originally undertaken, a parcel was withheld from the original conveyance. The original holding company was dissolved in 1963, and it was determined in 2011 that that land

escheat Escheat is a common law doctrine that transfers the real property of a person who has died without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied to a ...

ed to the Crown. It was conveyed to the Municipality of

Lambton Shores Lambton Shores is a municipality in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, that is on the southern shores of Lake Huron. History Lambton Shores was formed in 2001 when the Township of Bosanquet was amalgamated with the town of Forest, and the villages ...

that year for use as a greenspace. There have also been issues with the municipality relating to the status of several road allowances and a

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...

along the Old Ausable River Channel, that are in the process of being resolved.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Communities in Lambton County Mitt Romney Gated communities in Canada Antisemitism in Canada Anti-black racism in Canada