With the Toronto election over and new councillors soon to take their place in the chamber at city hall, preparations for the next stage of the ongoing fight over the number of wards in the city are just beginning.The province filed fresh evidence this week in an appeal of a judge’s decision that Premier Doug Ford’s council-cutting legislation, Bill 5, was unconstitutional. That appeal will be heard starting June 10.Though Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba ruled Sept. 10 that the legislation tabled by the rookie premier and former city councillor without any prior notice should be stuck down, the province was successful in convincing a higher court to stay that decision — essentially putting the court ruling on hold until the appeal could be heard.That set the stage for the Oct. 22 election to go ahead with a smaller, 25-ward race instead of the planned 47 wards approved by council years earlier. What’s next in the court fight is the June hearing at the Court of Appeal.In a new motion filed with the court, Crown lawyers representing the province are asking that they be allowed to submit new evidence — which is typically not permitted at the appeal stage. They argue that Belobaba did not give the province enough time to bring experts, conduct cross-examinations or prepare materials in defence of Bill 5.“The result was a failure of procedural fairness to Ontario,” the motion says, also noting several experts declined their requests to participate because of the time frame for the earlier August hearing.The new evidence the province wants to submit includes that of two experts.The first expert is political scientist and University of Chicago professor Anthony Fowler, who specializes in elections and representation. He provided analysis of the most recent and previous elections.By looking at the makeup of the newly-elected council and that of previous elections, Fowler concluded that “the representation of histori ...
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