September 15th, 2018

Horwath’s NDP uses new tactics to push back against Ford’s Charter bashing bill

QUEEN’S PARK — After successfully delaying Doug Ford’s Charter bashing bill for as much as a week using a reasoned amendment, Andrea Horwath and NDP MPPs have given the Speaker of the House notice that they’ll move two points of order, challenging Ford’s ability to introduce the bill, at all.

NDP House Leader Gilles Bisson rose Thursday morning in the legislature to say the NDP will challenge the bill under Standing Order 52, which does not allow introducing substantially the same legislation twice in one session of the legislature. The new Bill 31 is virtually identical to the former Bill 5, which was struck down by the Superior Court.

Bisson also said they will challenge the bill on the grounds of Standing Order 23(g), which rules that the legislature can’t debate items currently before the courts – and since Ford’s government has filed an appeal of the judge’s decision to overturn his law, the issue is currently in the courts.

Andrea Horwath and the NDP have been clear that they won’t stand idly by while Doug Ford attempts to revoke people’s rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ford’s rights-revoking bill is an attempt to over-ride the court decision which concluded that a bill to rig Toronto’s municipal elections violates those rights.