August 27, 2025
Burlington natural gardener to fight City’s $400,000 prosecution
Public urged to help fund legal challenge to
protect the Charter right of freedom of expression through gardening
Burlington, Ontario. The City of Burlington is taking homeowner Karen Barnes to Provincial Offences court, seeking up to $400,000 in fines for growing a naturalized garden in her front and back yards. But Barnes is fighting back for the environment and her constitutional rights.
“Karen is helping nature in a way that aligns with her environmental and spiritual beliefs,” says her lawyer, Vilko Zbogar. “We will defend the right to express those beliefs vigorously in court.”
Ms. Barnes has been charged with violations of the City bylaw for not following an order to cut down her naturalized garden. The pre-trial is scheduled for August 27.
Naturalized gardens allow homeowners to create ecologically sound landscapes, support pollinators, and protect biodiversity. For many years, Ms. Barnes has cultivated a habitat via a community of plants, including New England aster, Canada goldenrod, milkweed, buttercups and more. Frequent visitors include monarch butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, chickadees and dragonflies.
The City of Burlington’s own website proposes that naturalized gardens “…use less water, need less upkeep, and improve the City’s urban forest.” Yet in Ms. Barnes’ suburban neighbourhood, she has been harassed for having a yard that looks “different” from the norm. In 2024, the City forcibly mowed her garden to the ground, and subsequently laid charges under its by-law.
“We are challenging the constitutionality of this bylaw,” Ms. Barnes says. “Everyone should be free to express their environmental values in how they steward and engage with the land, without the brute force of the government trampling on their rights and on beneficial gardens.”
Similar bylaws have been successfully challenged across Ontario. A landmark 1996 ruling concerning a Toronto garden established that naturalized gardens, expressing environmental beliefs, are protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ Freedom of Expression.
And in 2022, in response to neighbour complaints, the City of Smith Falls told Beth and Craig Sinclair to tame their natural garden. After losing their fight with the city, the Sinclairs appealed to Ontario’s Superior Court and the town backed down. “These complainants were using the bylaw officers as a kind of an instrument to enforce their own esthetic,” the Sinclairs’ lawyer David Donnelly said at the time.
Ms. Barnes believes that challenging the constitutionality and legal application of Burlington’s bylaw will lead to more Canadians using their private property to protect nature and mitigate climate change.
“If you have a natural garden that someone doesn’t like, you could be next,” she says.
Ms. Barnes is accepting donations to help fund her challenge through Small Change Fund, a charity that helps everyday Canadians make grassroots change. She has currently raised about 25% of her initial $25,000 goal.
Supporters can donate here.
For more information, please contact:
Karen Barnes, Phone: (905) 336-2211
karenbarnes875@gmail.com
Vilko Zbogar, Lawyer for Ms. Barnes, Phone: (416) 668-8455
vilko@zapc.ca
Burkhard Mausberg, President Small Change Fund, (416) 898 9510
burkhard@burkhardmausberg.ca
The Barnes’ front laneway garden after
the bylaw officers mowed it down:
Asters growing in the Barnes’ front laneway garden before the mow-down:
