If you’re an Alberta landlord and haven’t heard about the case of Mario Antonacci, a.k.a. Andreas Pirelli, you’re missing out on a story that will take your mind on a journey to insanity.
This is the Calgary tenant who arbitrarily decided that he owned the rental property he was inhabiting, that the owner owed him $17,000 for unauthorized renovations and that the property was the embassy of the “First Nations Sovran Embassy of Earth”. If this sounds insane, you’re right.
I won’t go into the whole story, but you should listen to the CBC’s episode of the Current about the Freeman on the Land movement. In particular, listen to the tips from Ron Usher (the general counsel for the Society of B.C. Notaries) about how to recognize Freeman-style documents. They’re scary, scary people.