Province planning final vote Thursday on Bill 31
A rare overnight session at the Ontario legislature that saw protesters and politicians gather for debate on a bill slashing the size of Toronto’s council moved the government closer Monday to passing the legislation, which has thrown the municipal election in Canada’s largest city into chaos.
The Progressive Conservatives, who’ve been rushing to push through the reintroduced bill after a judge ruled an earlier version was unconstitutional, said they expected to bring the matter to a final vote Thursday, about a month before Toronto goes to the polls.
Premier Doug Ford said the overnight session was an indicator of the government’s commitment to passing the controversial legislation, which shrinks Toronto’s electoral map to 25 wards from 47 before the Oct. 22 election.
“We were here last night, like tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people around this province — the police officers who have to work at night, the nurses who have to work at night and factory workers who have to work at night,” he said. “We were fighting for the taxpayers of this great city.”
The midnight session attracted crowds of protesters to the legislature.
Some heckled Progressive Conservative politicians with cries of “shame, shame” until the Speaker cleared the public galleries. Others protested outside as police officers stood in front of the doors.
By midday Monday, the majority had left, but protest signs remained scattered on the grounds outside the legislature.
Ford, who has drawn much criticism for invoking a rarely used constitutional provision to forge ahead with his council-cutting plan, maintained the majority of Ontarians supported him.
“We are the only ones listening to the people — not the disrupters, not the professional activists that we’ve seen over the last few days. And when you stand up for the people, the people will stand with you,” he told the legislature. “The people are behind us and I can tell you, my friends, we will never, ever back down.”
Later in the day, the government downplayed suggestions there hadn’t been enough debate on the bill, dubbed the Efficient Local Government Act.
“We feel like we’ve heard from all sides,” said government house leader Todd Smith. “We want to provide that certainty to the City of Toronto and the clerk there as quickly as we possibly can.”
The New Democrats, meanwhile, said the protests at the legislature indicated many oppose the government’s move.
“I would prefer to be here even longer debating this bill,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. “But the government is going to ram it through because, just like they didn’t want to hear the voices of those hundreds of people through the wee hours of the morning, they’re not interested in hearing our voice either.”
Horwath briefly left the overnight debate to speak to protesters gathered outside the legislature and told them she was proud to see so many rally to defend charter rights at such an unusual time.
“Interfering in ongoing elections has ... a chilling effect on our democracy,” she said later inside the legislature. “The reality is this government behaved inappropriately, rammed this change forward without any kind of consultation while the elections were already underway.”
An Ontario Superior Court Judge ruled Sept. 10 that an earlier version of the bill violated the freedom of expression rights of voters and candidates because it reduced Toronto’s wards in the middle of an election campaign.
Ford said his government would appeal the decision and reintroduce the legislation with the notwithstanding clause, which allows his government to override the court ruling.