Trudeau won’t block Ford’s manoeuvre to cut Toronto council

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it clear Tuesday he would not block the Ontario government’s use of the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to forge ahead with plans to cut the size of Toronto city council, even though he was disappointed with the province’s decision.

Trudeau said he and his government are supporters and defenders of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it provides a set of guarantees that Canadians value and identify with as fundamental safeguards.

“So any time a government chooses to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override the charter’s protections, it has to be done deliberately, carefully and with the utmost forethought and reflection,” Trudeau said during an event in Winnipeg.

“But I won’t be weighing in on the debate on how big Toronto municipal council should be,” he added. “We shall respect and allow Ontarians to judge whether their government is doing a good thing or not.”

The notwithstanding clause gives provincial legislatures and Parliament the ability to usher in legislation that effectively overrides charter provisions, but only for a five-year period.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford took the rarely used step Monday after a judge said it was unconstitutional to slash the number of city council seats in the middle of a municipal election without consultation, as it interfered with the right to freedom of expression of candidates and voters.

Toronto Mayor John Tory called the premier’s reaction a “gross overreach” of the province’s powers and said in a tweet Monday night he had met with Trudeau, who was in the provincial capital for a women’s summit, to discuss his concerns.

Federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the notwithstanding clause is an extraordinary part of the Constitution that should be used only in the most exceptional of cases, after serious and sober consideration.

While the federal government is choosing not to confront Ontario’s newly elected Progressive Conservatives, they might have no alternative.

A provision of the Constitution technically permits the federal government to disallow provincial legislation, but the provision was last used in 1943, raising questions in legal circles about whether it has become obsolete.

A spokesman for Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer had no comment on Ford’s move.