Councillor Bill Dennis asked Council, at its November 18 meeting, to join with 13 other big cities in asking Premier Ford to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override legal barriers to removing encampments. His motion stated that this would “allow Municipalities to remove encampments with no potential legal ramifications which have been used as an excuse for municipal inaction.”
“We just have to put an end to it,” Councillor Dennis said. “We have to make some tough choices.”
Regarding removing encampments, Councillor Chrissy McRoberts said it is just shuffling people around. “We’re still not dealing with the issue,” she said. “They’re still here, they’re not leaving. They may be in smaller groups, but every group is upsetting some new neighbour.”
The motion was defeated with Councillors Adam Kilner, Brian White, Chrissy McRoberts, Terry Burell, Dave Boushy, and Mayor Mike Bradley voting against, and only Councillors Bill Dennis, Anne Marie Gillis, and George Vandenberg voting in favour.
In late October, Premier Doug Ford called on the mayors of big cities to write him a letter demanding he use the notwithstanding clause, a legal tool that allows governments to override parts of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The notwithstanding clause, Section 33, would need to be invoked due to a January 2023 ruling by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that said the region of Waterloo could not remove people from a Kitchener encampment because it violated section 7 of the Charter. This section of the Charter states, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”
Ontario’s Big City Mayors were not unanimous in their decision with 16 of the 29 members declining to ask the Ford government to invoke the notwithstanding clause. 41 city councillors from across Ontario also recently signed a letter urging Ford not to use it.
The letter asking Ford to invoke Section 33 was signed by the mayors of Barrie, Brampton, Brantford, Cambridge, Chatham-Kent, Clarington, Guelph, Oakville, Oshawa, Pickering, St. Catharines, Sudbury, and Windsor.
Ontario’s Big City Mayors did pass a resolution requesting that the provincial government:
• Urgently review, consult on, and update the Mental Health Act and the Health Care Consent Act, neither of which address the current state of the crisis across the province.
• Implement Diversion Courts throughout the Province, and expand the scope and reach of these courts, with a focus on rehabilitation rather than punitive measures.
• Along with the federal government, introduce legislation prohibiting open and public use of illicit drugs and public intoxications.
• Review, consult on, and update the Trespass to Property Act with such a review to include but not be limited to options to assist communities in addressing aggressive or repetitive trespass.
Sarnia’s Mayor Mike Bradley introduced a motion for Council to pass the same resolution. This passed with only Councillor Dennis opposing.