Windsor's mayor is joining with 12 other Ontario mayors in asking Premier Doug Ford to use the notwithstanding clause to override a court decision preventing municipalities from clearing homeless encampments if their shelters are full.
The letter was issued Thursday afternoon, with 13 mayors signing on, including Windsor's Drew Dilkens and Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff.
The letter takes aim at a January 2023 ruling by an Ontario Superior Court judge who ruled that Waterloo Region could not use a municipal bylaw to evict people living in an encampment because it violated their rights.
Municipalities have been told unless they have available space in the shelter system, an encampment must remain in place.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says he wants to make sure the city of Windsor never gets in the situation that other cities are in with multiple encampments.
"I don't think that people who are homeless should be taking over public spaces and public parks and doing whatever they want to do," he says. "There are supports available; there are systems available. We've got to help them get into those systems and not take over public parks that are for the use of all of the public."
In the letter to Premier Ford, the mayors ask for the notwithstanding clause to be invoked, if needed, to allow a number of measures:
- Provincial government to become an intervenor in any court case restricting municipalities’ ability to prohibit encampments.
- Implement a drug and diversion court system across the province and ensure there are necessary resources to allow a focus on rehabilitation as opposed to incarceration.
- Amend the Trespass to Property Act to include a separate provision for repetitive acts of trespass, the penalty for which should include incarceration, and to permit a police officer to arrest a person who commits repetitive acts of trespass after being told by police not to engage in such activity. These amendments should also include an option for referral to a diversion court.
- Enact legislation providing guidance on the open and public use of drugs being prohibited in the same manner that open consumption of alcohol is banned.
Dilkens says if the province moves forward with the notwithstanding clause, it allows municipalities to move out encampments and other elements that could help police and everyone else along the way.
"Increasing support for diversion courts and helping people get into treatment as a function of a sentence. Dealing with a Trespass to Property Act and making sure that police have the ability to arrest people who are repeat offenders for trespass to property," he says.
Dilkens says this is about trying to find a balance.
"I've heard people say it's an attack on homelessness; that's not what this is about at all. This is about trying to get tools in place to deal with ultimatley mental health and addiction," he says. "Make sure that the types of behaviours that are often associated with people struggling with mental health and addiction issues don't negatively impact the rest of the community."
Invoking the rarely used notwithstanding clause, or Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, would prevent a court from stepping in.