{"id":21605,"date":"2018-09-13T12:17:04","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T16:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21605"},"modified":"2018-09-13T12:17:04","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T16:17:04","slug":"brocks-banter-the-peoples-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-the-peoples-court\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: The People’s Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to look very far to find images that are discouraging at best and, at worst, disturbing, or even destructive.
\nTime and again we\u2019re bombarded, often from south of our border, with scenes that veer dangerously close to worlds that, just a few short years ago, could only have been described as dystopian.
\nIn some cases, we see hard-won victories threatened by the shadow of possible rollback. We\u2019re told by some quarters that what we see with our own eyes is less valuable than what we are told by people who have vested interests in making that so. We find it increasingly hard to get straight answers out of the people who need to answer the most, often being told what it is thought we want to hear rather than what we need to hear to make a thoroughly informed opinion.
\nHad it not been for the latest turn in the Federal saga over the Trans Mountain Pipeline, Ottawa\u2019s powers-that-be, or, one should say, the powers-that-might, would have had you believe that the greatest issue facing our country was, somehow, immigration, rather than a pesky little trade war with our country\u2019s biggest trading partner; a little fire started as a diversion thoroughly doused by the judiciary.
\nAnother fire was almost put out early Monday morning when Justice Edward P. Belobaba issued response to a number of injunctions filed by Toronto-area residents against the Ontario Government\u2019s Bill 5, the Better Local Government Act.
\nSpecifically, as you undoubtedly know by now, the Judge benched the Bill, which had an immediate, albeit temporary, impact on next month\u2019s Municipal Election, as far as Toronto is concerned. While the ruling decided the Ford Government \u201ccrossed a line\u201d in changing the rules of the game in the middle of an election season, attempting to slash the size of Toronto Council almost in half, throwing more than 20 hard-fought Council races into complete disarray, it reserved a decision on another crucial issue.
\nThe Better Local Government Act not only attempted to slash the size of Toronto Council \u2013 and, in the interests of fairness, might attempt to do so again pending any appeals from the Province \u2013 it also put the kibosh on the democratic process in a number of other jurisdictions.
\nThe Bill effectively binned the process instigated under the previous Wynne government that would have allowed voters in York Region, Peel, Muskoka and Niagara to directly elect the heads of their respective Regional Councils.
\nThe passage of that Bill under the previous government was seen as a victory for proponents and defenders of the democratic process who argued that the Region\u2019s top job, presently picked by a vote of Regional Council members from any citizen who decides to put his or her name forward for consideration, is \u201cthe most powerful position in the Region\u201d and should be elected directly by the people.
\nWhether or not the Chair of Regional Council, in the case of York Region, this position is held by former Whitchurch-Stouffville mayor Wayne Emmerson, actually wields significant power is a debate for another day, but what is not debatable is democratic powers were given to the people by one government and taken away by another.
\n\u201cI make no ruling in the provisions in Bill 5 that change the selection process for the regional chairs in York, Peel, Niagara, and Muskoka from election to appointment,\u201d said the Justice in his decision. \u201cI recognize Mr. Achampong included a challenge to these provisions in his application and filed a supporting affidavit from the campaign manager of a candidate in York Region. However, the Achampong application asks that Bill 5 be \u2018stayed\u2019 as a remedy that was not requested by any other applicant and is not being granted here because it requires a very different legal analysis. A more complete legal and evidentiary basis would be needed before this court could comfortably consider a challenge to the provisions in Bill 5 that deal with the appointment of the four Regional chairs.\u201d
\nSo, the residents in York Region, Peel, Niagara and Muskoka will have to wait another day, perhaps another four years, to have their voices heard. And all polls indicate that they do want the chance to sound off on who leads their Region.
\nIt has become somewhat traditional in this community to downplay what happens in Toronto, focusing instead on events within own municipal limits, pooh-poohing some of the things the city has to offer while building up many of our own offerings. Rightfully so, of course, but there is reason to care about Justice Belobaba\u2019s decision: it underscores the checks and balances we, the public, have at our disposal.
\nAnd also, that these checks and balances can be thrown out at the will of the government by invoking the rarely used Notwithstanding Clause.
\n\u201cThe enactment of provincial legislation radically changing the number and size of a city\u2019s electoral districts in the middle of the city\u2019s election is without parallel in Canadian history,\u201d he ruled. \u201cMost people would agree that changing the rules in the middle of the game is profoundly unfair. The question for the court, however, is not whether Bill 5 is unfair. The question is whether the enactment of Bill 5 is unconstitutional.
\n\u201cI am acutely aware of the appropriate role of the court on reviewing duly enacted federal or provincial legislation and the importance of judges exercising judicial deference and restraint. It is only when a democratically elected government has clearly crossed the line that the \u2018judicial umpire\u2019 should intervene. The province has clearly crossed the line.
\n\u201cAt first glance, Bill 5, although controversial in content, appears to fall squarely within the Province\u2019s legislative competence. Upon closer examination of the surrounding circumstances, however, one discovers at least two constitutional deficiencies that cannot be justified in a free and democratic society\u2026The Bill was enacted in the middle of an ongoing election campaign, it breached the municipal candidate\u2019s freedom of expression and, because Bill 5 almost doubled the population size of City wards from an average of 61,000 to an average of 111,000, it breached the municipal voter\u2019s right to cast a vote that can result in effective representation.\u201d
\nBy the middle of the day Monday, however, it was clear this ruling, outlining the democratic rights of people across the Province, and indeed the country were of little consequence to the Progressive Conservatives who like to bill themselves the \u201cGovernment of the People.\u201d
\nThey gave themselves a tall order with that brand, and, disappointingly, they seem determined not to live up to it.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir You don\u2019t have to look very far to find images that are discouraging at best and, at worst, disturbing, or even destructive. Time and again we\u2019re bombarded, often from south of our border, with scenes that veer dangerously close to worlds that, just a few short years ago, could only have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Ct","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 00:42:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}