Notwithstanding

Ontario is in the middle of a major controversy.  Doug Ford, newly elected premiere of Ontario, decided to push through some new legislation that greatly interferes with an ongoing election in the capital city of Toronto.  Ford decided to shrink the size of Toronto city council by roughly half and in the process redraw all the ward boundaries. 

The key here is the middle of the election bit.  We could have a perfectly reasonable discussion about how many councillors Toronto should have, and maybe those boundaries around the wards should change.  But Ford isn't leaping in to correct some massive imbalance - Toronto has about as many councillors per person as most other major cities, and the current numbers and maps were drawn with extensive consultation over many years.  This is the sort of process that should take a long time.

However, Ford isn't doing this because he wants to correct a problem.  Previously he was on city council and the other councillors stopped Ford and his crack smokin' mayor of a brother from doing all kinds of dumb stuff.  Ford is just trying to leverage his new power to punish people who annoyed him in the past.  It is honestly kind of breathtaking that he is so obvious about heinous abuses of power for personal reasons.

The recent spate of news is that a judge put a stop to this order saying it violated our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  I can't say legally how solid this is, but mucking with the election rules partway through an election certainly is terrible. 

Ford responded to this by declaring that he is using a controversial thing called the notwithstanding clause.  This clause allows the government to flat out ignore the Charter of Rights and Freedoms any time it wants.  It is a clause that has not been used because it is considered extreme and rude, pretty much, but it theory it means the government could make a law like 'No people of colour allowed' and squelch any objection by the courts.

This is a fucking disaster.  The notwithstanding clause shouldn't exist, and normalizing its usage is a terrible step to take.  Ford didn't even try to claim that this is a special case and he wouldn't use it often - he said that he would not be shy about using it again.  We are looking at a premiere who expects to be doing things against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and is happy to just ignore it.  If anything, he seems jubilant about the opportunity to do whatever the hell he wants no matter how wrong it is.

Lots of people are aghast that the tacit agreement not to use the notwithstanding nuclear option has been broken.  Everyone knew it *could* be used, but mostly they thought it wouldn't be.  How could the norms of civilized society be broken this way?

I am of two minds.  First off, all of government is a tacit agreement.  When dictators take control they are in control because people don't push back enough to stop them.  No law will suffice if people don't stand up for it.  This isn't some kind of outrageous departure because the only thing stopping the government from doing any horrible thing is protest against it by the masses, and the use of the notwithstanding clause is the same situation.  The government will do it unless we yell, a lot.

On the other hand this is a real problem.  Not just for the buffoon in charge of Ontario right now, but also for all of Canada.  Breaking that tacit agreement to not use this clause will give other premieres the idea that they can violate people's rights if they feel like it and they have a get out of jail free card.  This seems like it might encourage other forms of terrible behaviour if the pushback isn't strong enough.

It all strikes me as absurd.  Any politician actually trying to govern reasonably would just delay the new legislation until after the current election and change things calmly.  That might not be a great idea, but it wouldn't be a catastrophe.  But Ford is a destructive, foolish, selfish asshole.  He only cares about sticking it to people who he doesn't like, and he is willing to do whatever damage is required to get his petty revenge fantasies fulfilled.  And this is the guy in charge of my province for the next four years.

Anyone who is in a Conservative riding in Ontario needs to get busy and call their representative.  This is a major departure from normal standards of behaviour and there is a chance that if we riot enough we will convince some of them to back off on supporting this legislation.