Court date set in fight against Premier Doug Ford’s slashing of Toronto city council

Thestar.com
August 14, 2018
Jennifer Pagliaro

A court will hear arguments at the end of the month on whether Premier Doug Ford’s plan to cut the size of Toronto’s city council should be in force for October’s municipal election.

Rocco Achampong, a lawyer and council candidate, was in court Tuesday seeking an injunction against the Better Local Government Act, which is expected to become law imminently.

Rocco Achampong says the legislation shouldn’t apply to this fall’s municipal election.

A Superior Court judge ordered that Achampong’s case be heard on Aug. 31 on the merits -- meaning the step of arguing for an interim injunction will be skipped and a court will decide, after hearing legal arguments, whether the legislation can alter the number of wards for this election.

It’s expected a decision would be issued shortly after the hearing date.

“This is the kind of stuff you would expect from emergent democracies that are new to the voting process,” Achampong told reporters outside the courtroom, referring to the proposed legislation being tabled unexpectedly in the middle of a campaign that began three months ago.

“The city of Toronto’s election at this point borders on being illegitimate and not being fair.”

The province’s fifth bill, passed by the provincial legislature on Tuesday, would cut the size of council from 47 to 25 wards in the upcoming election. The new ward boundaries would match federal and provincial ridings, with an average of almost 110,000 people represented by each councillor.

It would make some wards with a lone representative as populated as entire cities and towns with their own councils and mayors.

Achampong, who previously ran for Toronto mayor and provincially as a Progressive Conservative candidate, argues that the proposed legislation breaches “basic democratic rights of candidates and electors in Toronto,” according to his court filings.

It also violates unwritten constitutional principles outlined by the Supreme Court of Canada -- such as democracy and the rule of law -- by interrupting an election already underway, he claims.

Legal experts have told the Star that while difficult to argue, such a challenge could and should be mounted against the proposed legislation.

It’s not yet clear if the city will make its own arguments. Council will debate at a special meeting on Aug. 20 whether to instruct the city’s legal team to fight the legislation in court. If council decides to challenge the proposed act, those arguments will also be heard Aug. 31.

Others looking to make a legal case against the forced ward restructuring would also be heard at that time. A scheduling date of Aug. 21 has been set to hear from other potential parties and resolve any outstanding issues about timing.