Doug Ford is taking Ontario down a long and dark road
Doug Ford has been premier for less than three months and already he has taken Ontario to a historically dark place.
Ford’s decision to use the notwithstanding clause to override Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been condemned in some remarkable places. Former Ontario premier Bill Davis and former prime minister Brian Mulroney, the father of Ford’s attorney-general, are but two of the voices, along with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who recognize that this is not what the notwithstanding clause was intended for.
Davis, who was part of the founding constitutional team, told TVO’s Steve Paikin: “The sole purpose of the notwithstanding clause was only for those exceptionally rare circumstances when a province wanted to bring in a specific benefit or program provision for a part of their population — people of a certain age, for example — that might have seemed discriminatory under the Charter.”
Ford has twisted that original intent for partisan purposes to enforce his particular view of what Toronto’s city council should look like. There is nothing illegal about what Ford has done. Ethically and morally, it may be repugnant, but it’s within his power.
Defenders of Ford’s position are portraying this as democratically elected leadership versus the judiciary. Rachel Curran, a former lawyer and former director of policy for former prime minister Stephen Harper, said in a debate on CBC that she supports Ford using the notwithstanding clause to send a message to the judiciary, which she referred to as “... a mostly left-leaning cabal” of judges. Not only is that hugely disrespectful to an essential pillar of our democracy, it misses the point.
This isn’t about Doug Ford versus Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba. Yes, judges are appointed, not elected. They are appointed as expert trustees, interpreters and shepherds of our laws and legal system. They are not political decision-makers, and don’t claim to be. What the judge did here was his job — he pointed out that parts of what Ford tried to do with his surprise attack on Toronto violated the constitutional rights of some of the people involved.
Judges are human. They make mistakes. That’s why the appeal process exists, for objective legal review and adjudication. But that’s not good enough for Ford. Instead, he used the nuclear option to override the constitutional rights of the candidates and people in Toronto whose visions are different from his.
Ford knows his council-slicing legislation is unconstitutional, and he’s doing it anyway. How would that sort of attitude work for average Ontarians facing legal decisions? Would Ford suggest citizens simply ignore the ones they don’t agree with?
Wednesday afternoon, Ford’s dictatorial vendetta against his former Toronto council colleagues was in full flight, complete with senior citizen protesters being removed in handcuffs from the legislature. NDP leader Andrea Horwath said: “Is that what leadership is all about? Is that what the people of this province from one end to the other want to see their premier do?”
It’s a fair question, especially since Ford has already said he won’t hesitate to use Section 33 again to override the law for his own purposes.
Judges are human. They make mistakes. That’s why the appeal process exists, for objective legal review and adjudication. But that’s not good enough for Ford.