Ontario’s top court grants stay in Toronto council-cutting case

By The Canadian Press and news staff

Ontario’s highest court has granted a stay in a ruling that struck down the province’s plan to cut the size of Toronto city council by nearly half.

The stay means the city would go ahead with a 25-ward election instead of a 47-ward one.

It also means the government won’t have to immediately move forward with reintroduced council-cutting legislation that invoked a constitutional provision known as the notwithstanding clause to override the lower court ruling.

The province had argued the stay was necessary to eliminate uncertainty surrounding the Oct. 22 vote, and the Court of Appeal agreed.

“It is not in the public interest to permit the impending election to proceed on the basis of a dubious ruling that invalidates legislation duly passed by the legislature,” the three-judge panel wrote.

The appeal court rejected arguments from those opposed to the stay that the province was responsible for the chaos surrounding the election and thus shouldn’t be granted relief.

“We do not accept the respondents’ submission that, because Ontario exercised its legislative authority to enact Bill 5, it does not have ‘clean hands’ and should not be entitled to the equitable relief of a stay from this court,” the panel wrote.

Read the entire ruling below:

Ontario Court of Appeal ruling on Sept. 19, 2018 by CityNewsToronto on Scribd

“It certainly is a victory for the Ford government on the surface, [but] a bit of a backhanded victory; however, because they had already started this process of using the notwithstanding clause,” 680 NEWS political affairs specialist John Stall said.

“But the most important thing is clarity. The election is the priority. Can it go ahead? The answer now is yes, and the rest will fall into place.”

An Ontario judge last week found that the province’s Bill 5, which reduced Toronto city council to 25 seats from 47, violated freedom of expression rights for candidates and voters.

Premier Doug Ford contested the ruling and took the unprecedented step of invoking the notwithstanding clause in reintroduced legislation to push through with his plan.

The new bill won’t be up for a final vote until Thursday at the earliest, and the province’s lawyers said legislators wouldn’t move forward with the vote if the stay was granted.

The province is also appealing the lower court ruling and lawyers said the case could be heard on an expedited basis in order to resolve the issue before a new council is sworn in on Dec. 1.


Related content

Judges’ decision on stay of council-cutting decision expected Wednesday

Doug Ford invoking notwithstanding clause in order to cut Toronto city council size

Judge rules against provincial cut to Toronto city council

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today