Description of Event
Law & Cities Research Group Discussion
This paper examines recent challenges to municipal authority in Ontario. In 2022, the Province of Ontario introduced legislation to change the scope of municipal authority and the governance of specific municipalities. The actions piggybacked a 2021 Supreme Court of Canada decision that upheld, in a 5:4 decision, the same provincial government’s unmitigated power to change the City of Toronto’s electoral boundaries mid-election. Ontario’s latest decision concerning the exercise of mayoral power with a one-third vote of city council represents the most recent iteration of the province’s assertion of authority over municipalities. While a violation of the unwritten constitutional principle of democracy could be invoked, I argue instead that municipalities must challenge these actions forcefully and directly by strongly asserting their status as democratic governments – not through the courts, but in their city council chambers.
Speaker
Professor Alexandra Flynn’s teaching and research focus on municipal law and governance, administrative law, property law, and experiential education. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers, public reports, media articles, and a book on how cities are legally understood in law and how they govern, including the overlapping geographies and governance of city spaces, and the formal and informal bodies that represent residents. She is currently working on a SSHRC-funded project which seeks to understand the legal relationship between First Nations and municipal governments, illuminating the legal obligations of municipal governments to consult and accommodate First Nations and Indigenous peoples. She is also working on several projects related to precariously housed people in Canadian cities, including the governance of personal property of precariously housed people, and human rights and tent encampments.
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