Three weeks after a group of Ontario mayors appealed to Premier Doug Ford to do more to tackle homeless encampments across the province, a number of municipal councillors are pushing back.
On October 31, over a dozen municipal leaders, including Mayor Darrin Canniff, issued a letter calling on the Ford government to use the notwithstanding clause to pass legislation that would help them handle encampments and addiction issues in their respective communities.
Chatham-Kent Councillor Alysson Storey is part of a coalition of 41 municipal and regional Ontario Councillors calling on those mayors to rescind their letter and stand up for human rights.
“As individual Councillors in our respective municipalities, we know that Ontario municipalities are facing a humanitarian crisis that is affecting all of us,” the letter reads. “We see it every day in our communities. But no municipality should be above the law, and we are sworn to uphold democracy and human rights as Councillors.”
The group says there needs to be evidence-based solutions to the humanitarian crisis of homelessness and encampment without bypassing the courts and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.