Turmoil as Ford’s bill passes first reading
Cut-council move sparks ejections, handcuffs, protests
Bill Davis slammed it.
Amnesty International called it a “contemptuous” abuse of rights.
And hundreds of Ontarians took to the streets to protest Premier Doug Ford’s unprecedented decision to use the “notwithstanding” clause to override a Charter right in his quest to slash Toronto’s city council.
As the Ford government tabled legislation to use the controversial constitutional clause for the first time in the province’s history, the opposition was out in full force, led by a former Tory premier.
Davis, one of the most respected figures in the Progressive Conservative party and a key architect of the 1982 repatriation of the Constitution, told TVO’s Steve Paikin on Tuesday that “making the Charter a central part of our Constitution, Canada’s basic law, was a deliberate and focused decision by the prime minister and premiers.”
The man who governed Ontario from 1971 until 1985 warned the notwithstanding clause was
meant only for exceptionally rare circumstances.
“The notwithstanding provision has, understandably, rarely been used, because of the primacy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for all Canadians,” he told Paikin.
“That it might now be used regularly to assert the dominance of any government or elected politician over the rule of law or the legitimate jurisdiction of our courts of law was never anticipated or agreed to.”
Davis is not the only former politician to speak out against Ford’s decision.
Former NDP premier Bob Rae, who governed from 1990 until 1995, praised Davis for speaking out against this legislation “with force and clarity.”
“It’s about disrespect for democratic and lawful processes,” Rae wrote on Twitter. “The abuse of power is never a good thing. Populism turns democracy into dictatorship very quickly.”
Former Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney — whose daughter, Caroline Mulroney, is Ford’s attorney general — has also been sharply critical.
“Everybody knows I’m not a big fan of it and I never have been,” Mulroney said Tuesday of the notwithstanding clause, which he stressed he has not discussed with his eldest child.
Meanwhile, in an unprecedented rebuke, human rights organization Amnesty International condemned the legislation Wednesday.
“No government in Canada should take the contemptuous step of disregard for the Charter of Rights that the notwithstanding clause offers them,” said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, in a statement released Wednesday.
“To do so in a case involving the fundamental freedom of expression in a context in which core principles around elections and the underpinnings of our democracy are at stake is particularly disgraceful,” Neve said. “This invocation of section 33 by Premier Ford’s government should be withdrawn immediately. Questions about the interpretation and application of the Charter should be pursued through appeals and left to judges to determine.”
Neve said the group, which usually speaks out against grave violations of human rights by rogue governments, had never had to condemn any level of government in Canada.
“It is disappointing to us that we have to make this statement in Canada,” he said.
Amnesty released its statement shortly after Ford’s reintroduced bill passed first reading amid a tumultuous day of protest at Queen’s Park in which protesters were taken from the legislature in handcuffs — one a woman in her 70s —and New Democratic representatives were ejected for banging on their desks.
After the NDP protest, the bill, named the Efficient Local Government Act, passed first reading 63-17. The remaining New Democrats, along with the Liberals and the lone Green MPP, voted against it.
Ford hastily recalled the Legislature to invoke the notwithstanding clause after Justice Edward Belobaba ruled Monday that an earlier version of the bill violated voters’ and candidates’ Charter right of freedom of expression.
Asked whether he believed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the premier said a democratically elected government should not be derailed by a “politically appointed” judge. Ford has maintained cutting Toronto city council to 25 seats from 47 is necessary to streamline decisionmaking and save taxpayer money.
The New Democrats attempted to drown out the reading of the bill by banging on their desks, prompting the Speaker to kick most of their ranks, including Leader Andrea Horwath, out of the house.
Horwath said her party members had launched their protest to show they wouldn’t accept Ford’s “heavy-handed” decision lightly.
The premier, who has been accused of acting unilaterally against Toronto council for partisan reasons, did not attempt to disguise his motives under questioning from Horwath.
“The leader of the NDP is here to protect her crony buddies: Mike Layton, Joe Cressy, Gord Perks,” he said, referring to leftleaning Toronto councillors.
Horwath shook her head and said Ford, who lost the 2014 mayoral race to John Tory, was “obsessed” with city council and “didn’t even have the guts to campaign” on the issue.
When guards handcuffed and removed a woman, from the public gallery, a visibly disgusted former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne, the MPP for Don Valley West, shouted: “Come on, really?”
Some Tory ministers and MPPs could be seen squirming in their seats as Speaker Ted Arnott cleared the public galleries after people jeered at Ford.
Horwath later told reporters “it was a shocking day — to watch grandmas and grandpas literally be led out of the gallery in handcuffs,” while also calling Ford “an out-of-control premier.”
With files from The Canadian Press