Alongside 20 other environmental groups, TEA sent a letter today calling on Toronto City Council to uphold our Charter-protected freedom of assembly, and vote against any bylaws that restrict this freedom. We firmly oppose any kind of protest ban in Toronto.
The environmental movement has long relied on peaceful demonstrations to stop critical threats to people and planet, like climate change and toxic pollution. In fact, the first Earth Day was a mass demonstration. Now is the time to protect our democratic freedoms, not erode them.
Read our letter below or download it here.
Dear Mayor Chow and Toronto City Councillors,
We are writing to share our serious concerns with you about an upcoming proposal to limit the Charter right to peacefully protest in Toronto in so-called “bubble zones.”
We are a group of environmentally-focused nonprofits and community groups active in Toronto. Like many movements, the environmental movement has always relied on the right to peaceful assembly to raise awareness about critical threats to our health and well-being, and to advocate for our elected leaders to take action. We ask you to vote against any proposed bylaw that infringes on these rights.
Banning peaceful protest in any location undermines democratic freedoms, violates Charter rights, and removes the most important tool the environmental movement has to build public awareness, fight injustice, and push governments to take action.
Without this basic right, we would have no Earth Day, no climate movement, and as a result no serious ongoing government action to address climate change, an existential threat to humanity. This right underpins every hard-won social and political freedom we have. As the Canadian Civil Liberties Association states in a recent letter to City Council, “alarmingly, once broad limits on expression and protest are on the books, they are often used to stifle the peaceful expression of marginalized communities.”
The yet-to-be-released proposal, which Council is expected to debate at their May meeting, seeks to create ‘bubble zones’ to prohibit or restrict demonstrations in certain areas. Based on the City’s survey and outreach materials, these locations could include areas and streets adjacent to City Hall/Civic Centres, child care centres, religious institutions, schools, recreation centres, cultural centres, and other common public buildings. If such a bylaw was passed, it could ban demonstrations in key locations like Nathan Phillips Square as well as the streets adjacent to thousands of buildings in Toronto. This would ban most of the peaceful marches and protests we would be likely to organize in the future, and would have rendered most of the environmental demonstrations in Toronto in past decades illegal.
We are deeply concerned that adding a new bylaw on top of existing laws would create a chill effect on peaceful protests. We believe that additional determinations on what is a "peaceful" protest and what is defined as "nuisance" or "intimidating" leaves far too much room for discrimination and bias, and will disproportionately impact equity-owed and marginalized communities who experience more acts of discrimination. This would serve to stifle democratic expression and create a fear of civic engagement among many groups, including youth, who may have less access to other democratic processes. We believe that the current moment is one where democratic engagement is more important than ever, and we firmly oppose attempts to undermine this engagement.
Similar bylaws limiting protest in other municipalities are already facing Charter challenges, and legal organizations like the CCLA have now opposed this approach. The CCLA has pointed out that existing laws already prohibit physical violence, uttering threats, damaging property, and other behaviour the City may be seeking to prevent. The police also already have broad powers to allow for appropriate access to buildings and private property.
There have also been serious flaws in the City’s consultation process on this issue, which is now the subject of an administrative inquiry. Considering the severity of this issue and long term impact on democratic rights, the exclusive and flawed consultation process must be properly addressed before proceeding with any decisions.
We join the many voices calling for our City to protect our basic Charter rights to peaceful assembly and the basic tools of a healthy and free democracy. We ask you to vote against any proposal that undermines these rights.
Sincerely,
Toronto Environmental Alliance
David Suzuki Foundation
Greenpeace Canada
Environmental Defence Canada
Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA)
Sierra Club Canada
Ecojustice
Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE)
Seniors for Climate Action Now! (SCAN!)
TTCriders
Scarborough Environmental Association
Community Resilience to Extreme Weather (CREW)
ClimateFast
The ENRICH Project
Canadian Community Challenge
Green Majority Radio
Uptown Climate Conversations
The Climateverse
Toronto East Residents for Renewable Energy
Toronto350
Stand.earth