Court battle over the Toronto council cut is back on. It´s about `democracy,´ city says
(The Star Food)

The court battle between Toronto and the province over the cut to the size of council during the 2018 election resumed Monday, with the city arguing the heart of the case comes down to democracy and democratic elections.The decision, to be rendered by a rare five-judge panel of the Court of Appeal, could overrule the decision by Premier Doug Ford’s provincial government to bring mid-election changes without consultation in July 2018.The panel heard from lawyers from both the city and province Monday in a scheduled two-day hearing over Bill 5, the Better Local Government Act, which forced the city to run a 25-ward election last October when a 47-ward one was already underway.“This case is about democracy and democratic elections� and the country’s democratic values when it comes to those processes, said city lawyer Glenn Chu in his opening statement at Osgoode Hall’s courtroom one on Monday.“Once you’ve given us the statutory right to a democratic election, it should be democratic.�The city spent Monday arguing the province’s mid-election interference infringed the charter right to freedom of expression of candidates and voters when it, as Justice James MacPherson, who is chairing the panel, put it, “blew up� the election three months in. It also, the city says, infringed an unwritten constitutional principle of democracy — a murkier concept that has yet to, on its own, strike down any legislation.Read more: Opinion | Thomas Walkom: Doug Ford is not just premier but also Emperor of Toronto‘You, sir, are no Tommy Douglas,’ Kiefer Sutherland tells Doug FordOpinion | ‘Daniel are you still up?’ My surreal 11:18 p.m. call from Premier Doug FordWith the election now over, the city is asking Bill 5 be made invalid for the 2022 election, which would allow the city — subject to any new provincial rules — to hold a regular election with as many wards as it choose. Th ...