Ex- chair candidates leave the drama for others

Niagara’s role in the drama over Premier Doug Ford’s plan to reduce the size of government was over before it began

Monday.

But that didn’t stop politicians and lawyers from weighing in on the political and legal theatre as it unfolded.

Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba started the day by halting Premier Doug Ford’s plan to cut the size of Toronto council from 25 from 47 in the upcoming municipal election.

In the same ruling on Bill 5, Beloba-

ba wrote that he took “no position” — and therefore left intact — Ford’s move to cancel the direct election of regional chairs in Niagara, York, Peel, and Muskoka. Ford countered by invoking the “notwithstanding” clause to overrule the judge.

Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn, one of four candidates who were running for the regional chair, said he was focused on his new goal, winning the race to be Pelham’s regional councillor.

“I think we resigned ourselves to the fact that this is what they are going to do,” Augustyn said.

Former Welland mayor Damian Goulbourne was also running and had his campaign team in place. “I was very much aware of the court case as it unfolded, and I was hopeful — because I was prepared to re-enter the race,” Goulbourne said.

Alan Caslin, the current regional chair, didn’t respond to a request for an interview. He is running for a regional council position in St. Catharines. John Beam of Niagara Falls was also running for chair.

Belobaba wrote no one requested a “remedy” for the cancellation of the regional chair’s races, and he was letting that portion of the legislation stand because it requires different legal analysis.

Toronto lawyer John Mascarin, a municipal law expert who served as Niagara interim integrity commissioner last year, said Ford’s move to invoke the notwithstanding clause caught him off-guard. “It seems like it was a disproportionate response,” Mascarin said.

“I had been saying from the beginning that I thought the province had the constitutional authority, which the judge admits. It’s the timing that is wrong, and it infringes on the freedom of expression of both voters and electors and candidates.

Another legal observer from Niagara, lawyer Alex Colangelo, who is a professor at Humber College in the Toronto area, said Ford’s maneuver is an “inappropriate” use of the clause.

“I think the notwithstanding clause was always intended to be an emergency clause to reweigh the balance between democracy and the judicial system in case of emergency,” said Colangelo, a Niagara Falls native. “It is not supposed to be used when the government disagrees with a court decision, and you haven’t even gone through the judicial process.

“It is not as if the government had no other choices. They could have done it properly. It’s like using a get-out-of-jail-free card because they haven’t done their work.”