‘It’s overkill’: Dozens of councillors speak up against use of notwithstanding clause to deal with encampments [Video]

A group of municipal and regional councillors in Ontario have come together to speak out against the potential use of the notwithstanding clause to deal with encampments.

The notwithstanding clause, also known as Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, gives provincial legislatures or parliament the ability to override certain portions of the Charter for no more than five years.

“Basically, it can be used by a province to suspend the rights of a group of people. In Quebec, they’ve used it with respect to French language and religious symbols,” Waterloo Regional Councillor Robert Deutschmann, one the members of the newly formed coalition, explained.

The coalition was formed weeks after more than a dozen mayors, including the mayors of Brantford, Cambridge and Guelph, signed a letter to Premier Doug Ford asking him to consider using the notwithstanding clause as cities across the province struggle with how to handle …