I’m in court where lawyer Rocco Achampong, a council candidate, is seeking an injunction of Ford’s Better Local Government Act. Right now he’s looking to get a date to be heard ASAP.
(Fixing earlier tweet) Achampong plans to argue that the new legislation, which would cut the number of wards/councillors to 25, should not take effect until *after* the 2018 election, saying it breaches “basic democratic rights of candidates and electors in Toronto”
Closely following arguments that have been laid out by @BBRyder @CraigScottCA (detailed here: thestar.com/amp/news/toron…), Achampong plans to argue that Bill 5 violates unwritten constitutional principles of democracy and rule of law
City legal is expected to be here. Council is meeting Aug. 20 at a special meeting to discuss legal options, so I expect without instructions they will be seeking to hold off on weighing in on this matter
I have covered most of the court cases involving the Fords closely (except for Rob Ford’s overturned removal from office). I expect this will not be only application filed involving the “Hon. Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario” over Bill 5
Province’s lawyer is now arguing it would be impossible to make arguments in this case against Bill 5 this week, notes legislation has not received royal assent yet. Council emergency meeting is Monday and says city lawyer proposed adjourning this scheduling to next day, Aug. 21
City’s lawyer, who currently doesn’t have instructions from council, says if they are instructed to commence their own legal proceedings (which would be joined with Achampong’s case) they would be prepared to make arguments Aug. 31
Aug. 31 is now scheduled for a judge to hear whether the Ford government’s Better Local Government Act should be in force for Toronto’s 2018 election. City may join and argue same, or make different arguments about procedure etc., if they receive those instructions from council
Case from Achampong and possibly the city, if they bring one, and others, if they join, will be heard on the merits, meaning they’ll skip the step where there is first an argument for injunction and just do the whole shebang on Aug. 31
Court has set a date of Aug. 21 for others to be heard if they wish to participate on Aug. 31 and deal with other scheduling issues
It’s not known if a judge will decide immediately or reserve their decision to a later date, but this all means we’ll know Aug. 31 or soon after if Toronto’s election will be run based on a 47 or 25-ward system
One troubling note: Court officials, in the middle of discussions at 393 University, tried prevent journalists from recording audio. Court protocol allows us to record for our notes. We faced pushback when explaining rules of the court. This often happens to me and never should.
