Left to right: Naturalized gardeners Julia Barnes and Karen Barnes Credit: Karen Barnes
Today, on Small Change, we deconstruct why the City of Burlington continues waging war on native plant species thriving on private property focusing specifically on the naturalized garden of Karen and Julia Barnes.
Karen Barnes has a master’s degree in ecology. The habitat gardener lives in north Burlington and began rewilding her yard in 2015.
Karen’s daughter, Julia Barnes, is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on protecting nature. Julia’s first documentary, Sea of Life, won 12 awards including the “Most Revealing” award at Cinema Verde, “Audience Choice” award at Earth Talks, and the Emerging Filmmakers Ontario 150 Film Challenge at WaterDocs. It also won “best documentary” at Forest City Film Festival, Ekotopfilm/ Envirofilm, and Cayfilm Cayman International Film Festival. Julia was only 16-years-old when she started making that film.
Her subsequent documentary, Bright Green Lies, investigates the extraction-dependent and ecologically destructive reality behind “green” technologies.
Native gardens like the Barnes’ help push back against the insect apocalypse Canada is experiencing. Credit: Karen Barnes
Karen and Julia give Small Change listeners a re-cap of their ten-year battle with the City of Burlington, ON, over their naturalized garden.
Karen and Julia’s garden after the city cut it down. Credit: Karen Barnes
The City of Burlington cut down their garden several times during the past decade. The city is also taking Karen to court threatening up to $380,000 in fines in an attempt to have her remove or replace her naturalized garden.
Karen and Julia tell listeners about the damage done to their private property and how that has impacted their enjoyment of their property because as Julia sees it, “When something you love and care deeply about is under threat, it affects you everyday, changes your outlook on the world and definitely prevents you from enjoying things as much as you would have.”
Asters with an endangered monarch butterfly in the Barnes’ garden. Monarchs are endangered due to habitat loss. Credit: Karen Barnes
Twenty-nine years ago Sandy Bell won an identical case at the Superior Court of Ontario establishing that naturalized gardens, expressing environmental beliefs, are protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ freedom of expression — as long as they don’t pose public safety risks.
A subsequent case in 2002 affirmed the right of gardeners to express their environmental beliefs with gardens on City-owned boulevards.
Yet, the City of Burlington is pursuing the case against Karen despite Bell, and others, having won the right to express themselves while protecting nature in previous lawsuits. We discuss similarities between Bell’s 1996 case and Karen’s 2025 case.
Recently, the City of Burlington made some pretty substantial changes to Karen’s court case that was originally scheduled to take place in November 2025. Karen updates listeners on those changes including the city requesting the case be heard at the end of March 2026 because after a decade of using in-house lawyers the city suddenly retained an outside, independent lawyer at the expense of Burlington tax payers.
Insect on goldenrod in the Barnes’ garden. Credit: Karen Barnes
Karen and Julia have connected with other folks across Ontario who have experienced similar attacks on their naturalized gardens by their own city councils. While some folks have been successful without going to court, others have won their cases in court. We look at what these women have learned from connecting with other natural gardeners.
Karen and Julia leave Small Change listeners with inspiring last words and remind listeners that while the City of Burlington has apparently unlimited funds to fight this fight, Karen does not. An additional financial hit is the fact that the Provincial Offences Court where the case will be decided cannot award court costs or recoup any legal fees for Karen even when she wins this ridiculous case.
Fall asters in the Barnes’ side garden are essential for butterflies, bees and moths. Credit: Karen Barnes.
*Karen and Julia have set up a fund to help with the costs of their on-going legal challenge. You can donate here.
Feel free to email Burlington City Council about this environmental disconnect during an undeniable climate crisis, insect apocalypse and Anthropocene epoch. And, if you’re a Burlington tax payer, let council know whether pursuing this costly case fits the definition or expectation of council fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers during intersecting housing, unhoused, cost-of-living, opioid and biodiversity crises. Here’s the Mayor’s and Councillor’s email addresses.
Check out REWILD Landscapes in Ottawa, ON, co-founded by Jeff Collins.
Find out more about the insect apocalypse here.
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your financial support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
You can also find my work in herizons, rabble.ca and on my Wix site. Follow me on Instagram, X @doreennicoll61, Bluesky @nicollneedschange and Facebook.
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
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