Floreat Grimsby In Medio Horti
Here we go again. After Council decided in February 2022 to implement a total ban of the discharge of firearms and bows, other than for farm protection, it would seem that special interest is trying to cajole the new term of Council into catering to their desire to be discharging firearms and bows for sport hunting and other “recreational” purposes.
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Much like the Committee of the Whole meeting of January 19, 2022, the issue of the Discharge of Firearms and Bows By-law brought out a long list of delegates and public attention to the issue at Council on Monday night.
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As pointed out in our last post, there has been a big push from the Ontario Federation of Angler’s and Hunters (OFAH) to get its 100K+ membership to “voice those opinions at the next council meeting” of February 7th, alongside with an individual petition to keep hunting in Grimsby legal.
Continue readingThe January 17th 19th Committee of the Whole meeting was long, so long that it wound up pushing the Council meeting until a Friday. The topic-de-jour was the issue of waterfront hunting with an astounding 10 delegations on the issue. If you need a brief history on this topic, please see our previous post by clicking here.
If you haven’t heard the gunshots ringing off the lake, you might have heard about the issue from your neighbours or the local newspaper. The passage of Grimsby’s new Discharge of Firearms By-law back in November left a legal gap, one large enough to drive a boat of armed hunters through.
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According to an article in the latest NewsNow, one resident was threatened with charges under the Elections Act for displaying a sign that was classified as an “election sign”.
The sign in question says “Who Speaks For The People of Ward 3?”
The Town’s “Sign By-law” 97-45 (link here) is the current in-force By-law regarding signs and it defines an election sign as follows:
There certainly is no municipal, regional, provincial or federal election underway nor does the sign appear to support a candidate or political party. What the sign appears to support is the exercise of Section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms or simply “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression”.
It is not an absolute right, as Section 1 of the Charter can curtail rights with “such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society” on the freedom of expression. For instance, the pre-COVID adage of “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theatre” serves as an example.
In this case however, should the resident decide to pursue a Charter case, Town administration and their legal team would be hard-pressed to prove that the sign By-law can revoke that enshrined right. Section 1 of the Charter sets a very high bar.
Interestingly enough, one of the Town’s legal team, Mr. John Mascarin, co-penned a legal brief in 2002 entitled “Is The Writing On The Wall For Sign By-Laws In Canada?”. In that paper, the authors reviewed a then-recent Supreme Court of Canada decision on signs and how Charter rights and municipal sign By-laws interact.
“Given that the sole purpose of municipal regulation is to place limits on the means of expression, applicants have had little difficulty meeting their onus of showing that there has been a prima facie infringement of their rights.
…
The difficulty from a municipal lawyer’s perspective is that, once the
onus has transferred, justifying limitations in a sign by-law is extremely difficult under the rigorous s. 1 test.”
You can read the entire paper at this link here.
The current sign By-law dates back to 1997 and since that time there have been significant decisions that affect the enforceability and application of this type of By-law. Perhaps it is time for Council to look into this specific matter and bring this document into conformity with legal practice and judicial standards.
You can read the full NewsNow article at the following link:
https://www.wn3.ca/2021/02/03/resident-threatened-with-charge-under-elections-act-for-sign/
With the last week of summer upon us, Council is back in session at it’s regular time on Monday night (September 17th @ 7PM). Concerning the agenda, if you enjoy having a garage party after 11PM or dusting it up with a little street fight now and then…. the By-Law updates are for you. For the rest of us, the Biodigester delegation may prove to be the more interesting item.
Council is once again back in session on Monday June 5th, 2017 and what’s on the agenda (and what is not) could make for a very interesting meeting.
All Council meetings are held at Grimsby Town Hall, 160 Livingston Avenue. Proceedings commence at 7PM and all members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Agenda: https://grimsby.civicweb.net/filepro/documents…
Public Works Minutes Discussion
Mr. LeRoux presented a few details of the $8M ($5M with “other projects”) Winston Road reconstruction. Costs will be covered through Development Charges (92%), outside contributions ($1.3M) and $600K from the Town. Since DC’s won’t all be received at the time construction starts this June, short term borrowing will need to be put in place with interest payments charged back to DC’s. Potential of 5-8 years to recoup the costs in a “hot” market, and up to 20 years if things slow down (highly probable). Apparently Public Works does not expect too many “extras” and has set aside a small contingency ($100K) for possible overruns.
Not sure if the verbiage on this sign could get any longer…
But in all seriousness, why would By-Law be entitled to enforce most of which is in the Canadian Criminal Code and the exclusive domain of Niagara Regional Police? Cash grab?
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