Sep 10, 2018 @ 15:55<\/b><\/p>\n
Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath is calling Doug Ford\u2019s vow to invoke the notwithstanding clause and suspend part of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Ontarians an unprecedented abuse of power.<\/p>\n
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\u201cInvoking the notwithstanding clause in a case like this is an unprecedented move, literally suspending the Charter rights of Ontario people in order to plow ahead with his revenge plot against his political enemies at Toronto City Hall,\u201d said Horwath.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA good leader doesn\u2019t just ask if he has the right to do it, but whether it\u2019s the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The notwithstanding clause allows a provincial government to suspend a part of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a period of up to five years. Its use is incredibly rare in Canadian history.<\/p>\n
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Horwath said she not only opposes Ford\u2019s plan to invoke the notwithstanding clause \u2013 but also opposes any plan by Ford to use public money to fund an appeal on the court\u2019s ruling, saying it\u2019s wrong to waste more of Ontarians\u2019 money on Doug Ford\u2019s revenge plot. The decision from Justice Edward Belobaba was clear, she said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Province has clearly crossed the line,\u201d wrote Belobaba in his decision, which also stated that \u201cPassing a law that changes the City\u2019s electoral districts in the middle of its election and undermines the overall fairness of the election is antithetical to the core principles of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Horwath thanked Belobaba for his work, and all those who gave their time and expertise to the court battle against Ford\u2019s move to meddle in Toronto\u2019s municipal elections.<\/p>\n
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While Monday\u2019s ruling against the Ford administration was welcome, with Ford\u2019s move to invoke the notwithstanding clause it\u2019s clear that Ontarians standing up for their rights can\u2019t rest, yet.<\/p>\n
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\u201cNew Democrats, progressive Ontarians, and all those that respect democracy and our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms won\u2019t stand for this. In the legislature and in our communities, we\u2019ll speak out and oppose Doug Ford\u2019s attack on our Charter rights and his abuse of office.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAnd as New Democrats, we\u2019re going to keep reminding Ontarians that it doesn\u2019t have to be this way. Today, we could be building a province where families have more opportunity to build a great life. We could be improving health care wait times, and rebuilding our children\u2019s schools. There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that\u2019s what really matters, and what we should be focused on at Queen\u2019s Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sep 10, 2018 @ 15:55 Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath is calling Doug Ford\u2019s vow to invoke the notwithstanding clause and suspend part of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Ontarians an unprecedented abuse of power. \u201cInvoking the notwithstanding clause in a case like this is an unprecedented move, literally suspending the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":6313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 14:10:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15345,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15343\/revisions\/15345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}