Hundreds of Ontario's lawyers are voicing concerns over some Ontario mayors' proposal to use the "notwithstanding clause" to remove homeless encampments.
A letter urging the government not to take this action, signed by 450 members of Ontario's legal community, was sent to Premier Doug Ford this week.
"I understand the frustration of the 13 mayors that signed this request, no one likes to see encampments in parks but they're not encampments of animals, they're encampments of people who don't have anywhere else to live," said Walter Van de Kleut, Executive Director of the Chatham-Kent Legal Clinic, who signed the letter.
The proposal to use the notwithstanding clause comes after an Ontario Superior Court ruled that if the municipality in question doesn't have room in its shelter system for those living in encampments, the removal of encampments was a violation of the encampment residents' right to life, liberty, and security.
Section 33 allows a legislature, provincial or federal, to override constitutionally protected human rights.
The letter calls the proposal "an unprecedented misuse of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, depriving one of the most vulnerable groups in Ontario of their fundamental rights, including rights to life, security of the person, and protection from discrimination."
"I am really worried. I see this call to use 33 as ineffective, as expensive and cruel actually," said Tess Sheldon, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, who also signed the letter.
The letter cautions that using the clause would undermine the role of the judges in safeguarding individual rights.
"To ignore the Charter protections for unhoused people, people who use criminalized drugs, it's going to undermine the rule of law. We should be concerned by attempts by the premier and the mayors to overturn the precendent," said Sheldon.
The lawyers call on the government to find a solution that does not erode Charter protections.
"I have no doubt that legislation requiring the notwithstanding clause is not the answer. Clearing encampments with no plan for where people are going to go next ignores, not solves the problem," said Sheldon.
Other lawyers from Southwestern and Midwestern Ontario who signed the letter include:
-Irina Ceric, University of Windsor Faculty of Law, Windsor
-Allison Darling, Laywer, London
-Sarah Donohue, Lawyer, Sarnia
-Kimberley Gagan, Director, Community Legal Services (Western Law), UWO, London
-Rebecca Holton, Staff Lawyer, Grey-Bruce Community Legal Clinic, Owen Sound
-Tori-Lee Jenkins, Staff Lawyer, Legal Assistance of Windsor, Windsor
-Stella Jonah, CKLC Member- Board of Directors, Chatham
-Micheal Joudrey, Tenant Duty Counsel, London
Theresa Kiefer, Housing Support Worker, Neighbourhood Legal Services, London
-Dawn Lafonte, Paralegal, Owen Sound
-Meghan Laverty, St. Thomas
-Justin Levesque, Clinic Lawyer, Windsor
-Stanley Michael Lynk, Professor Emeritus, Western University, London
-Neil MacIsaac, Staff Lawyer, Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County, Guelph
-Najia Mahmud, Staff Lawyer, Elgin-Oxford Legal Clinic, St. Thomas
-Alicia Mair, Sarnia
-Manish Oza, Assistant Professor, Western University Faculty of Law, London
-Sukanya Pillay, Executive Director,UW OSRR/Lawyer (Constitutional Law, Human Rights), Windsor
-Ishnoor Rattan, London
-Jillian Rogin, Associate Professor/lawyer, University of Windsor, Hamilton
-Daniel Rohde, University of Windsor Faculty of Law, Windsor
-Tasha Schmidt, Owen Sound
-Joshua Sealy-Harrington, Associate Professor & Chair of Equality Law, University of Windsor, Faculty of Law, Toronto
-Tess Sheldon, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, Windsor
-Christopher Sherrin, Associate Professor of Law, Western University, London
-James Simpson, Staff Lawyer, London
-Hajar Tohme, Staff Lawyer, Legal Assistance of Windsor, Windsor
-Samuel Trosow, Prof. Emeritus, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law, and London City
Councillor, London
-Walter Van de Kleut, Clinic Lawyer/Executive Director, Chatham
-Monica Wolf, Lawyer, St. Thomas