Sarnia votes against calling for provincial notwithstanding clause use

Sarnia won’t join the call from some Ontario mayors for use of the notwithstanding clause to address homeless encampments.

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City council Monday voted 6-3 against backing a call from 12 mayors, including nearby Chatham-Kent’s Darrin Cannifffor Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to be invoked by Premier Doug Ford, if needed, amid widespread homeless encampments in the province.

Coun. Bill Dennis made Sarnia’s motion Monday for the notwithstanding clause’s use, amid ongoing debate about what to do about a 40-person encampment in the city’s Rainbow Park, where costs for security and sanitation measures are expected to top $500,000 by year’s end.

“We need to save our city and the Rainbow Park neighbors and the downtown community from the pure chaos in which they currently live,” Dennis said, about the encampment that’s been a thorny topic at city council since around March.

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Dennis also took aim at park inhabitants for drug use and breaking laws.

“True homeless people are not involved with drugs and crime,” he said. “They want help and they want shelter.”

Sarnia has unused emergency shelter beds, but court rulings in Waterloo and Kingston, and a third-party legal opinion obtained by the city, say such beds aren’t enough to justify removing people from public parks, in violation of Charter rights to life, liberty and security.

Truly accessible shelter spaces that would allow couples to stay together, people to bring in pets or drugs, and ensure safety from violence and sexual predation are needed.

Sarnia has voted against seeking a court injunction for the encampment in Rainbow Park’s removal, amid concerns about cost and unlikely victory,

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Using the notwithstanding clause would essentially bypass the court system.

Couns. Anne Marie Gillis and George Vandenberg voted with Dennis Monday in the losing effort.

“I think it’s a reasonable ask,” Gillis said about requesting provincial use of the notwithstanding clause.

The issue of homeless encampments in Sarnia and elsewhere is more important than other reasons the notwithstanding clause has been used in Ontario, she said, including to reduce the number of wards in Toronto, to prohibit third-party election advertising and to mandate striking teachers back to work

“This is a huge problem. . . and it has to be dealt with,” Gillis said.

It’s important to remember people who move on from Rainbow Park remain in the community, homeless, Coun. Chrissy McRoberts said, arguing the focus instead government should be on pressing the provincial to improve the justice system and mental health and addictions supports for people.

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Coun. Terry Burrell made a similar point, and said backing the call for notwithstanding clause use “just gives the first a way out without actually doing anything.”

McRoberts noted numbers at Rainbow Park have fallen since council updated its encampment protocol rules in September — after consultation with police — to bar new people from joining encampments in prohibited areas, and from returning after vacating an encampment in a prohibited area.

“Hopefully with the cold weather, they’re going to seek to go to the shelters and be somewhere else,” she said about people still living in Rainbow Park

Council, meanwhile, voted 8-1 — Dennis was opposed — in favor of a motion from Mayor Mike Bradley to call on the province to work with municipalities and others to create a comprehensive plan for encampments, similar to a motion passed by Lambton county council in May.

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Sarnia’s approved motion also reiterates recent calls from Ontario’s Big City Mayors for the province to update the Mental Health Act and Health Care Consent Act; create more diversion courts focused on rehabilitation; prohibit open and public use of illicit drugs, and public intoxication; and update the Trespass to Property Act.

The dozen mayors who called for the notwithstanding clause use, if necessary, to achieve those aims are a splinter group of the 29 in the big city mayors group, who overall did not agree to ask for the notwithstanding clause’s use, Bradley said.

Council also voted 8-1, with Burrell opposed, for Lambton County to consult with Sarnia city council about Lambton’s plans for out-of-the-cold shelters this winter.

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Past Lambton decisions to create shelters at the former Central United and Laurel Lea-St. Matthews church buildings were done without city council consultation, Bradley said.

Both were met with local opposition, he said.

“I think we should pass a motion asking the county immediately to consult with city council on those locations, so you can have input on them before they occur,” Bradley said.

Gillis and Dennis were among the supporters, saying transparency is essential.

“The people want a voice and we all want to know when these things are going to be spring on us, because we are dealing with the consequences, rather than the county,” Gillis said.

Neighbors recently petitioned against the Laurel Lea shelter, saying it’s brought drug use, property damage and other problems to the neighborhood.

Burrell said there may be legal issues with having discussions about shelter plans publicly.

-with files from Paul Morden and Ellwood Shreve

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