A court will hear arguments at the end of the month on whether Premier Doug Ford’s plan to cut the size of Toronto’s city council should be in force for this October’s municipal election.Rocco Achampong, a lawyer and council candidate, was in court Tuesday seeking an injunction against the Better Local Government Act, which is expected to become law imminently. A Superior Court judge ordered that Achampong’s case be heard on Aug. 31 on the merits, meaning the step of arguing for an interim injunction will be skipped and a judge will decide, after hearing the legal arguments presented, whether the legislation can alter the number of wards for this election. It’s expected a decision would be issued shortly after that hearing date.“This is the kind of stuff you would expect from emergent democracies that are new to the voting process,” Achampong told reporters outside the courtroom about the proposed legislation being tabled unexpectedly in the middle of a campaign that began three months ago. “The city of Toronto’s election at this point borders on being illegitimate and not being fair.”Read more:How the Tories’ move to shrink Toronto council could be turned on its headHere are the potential legal challenges to Doug Ford’s proposed cut to Toronto councilMayor John Tory urges Premier Doug Ford in public letter not to cut council in halfThe province’s fifth bill, tabled in the new session at Queen’s Park, would cut the size of council from 47 to 25 wards in the upcoming October election. The new wards would match federal and provincial ridings with an average of almost 110,000 people represented by each councillor — making some wards with a lone representative as populated as entire cities and towns with their own councils and mayors.Achampong, who previously ran for mayor and provincially as a PC candidate, plans to argue that the proposed legislation breaches “basic dem ...
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