Invoking constitutional clause could strip homeless people of fundamental rights, warns Ontario legal community

Members of Ontario’s legal community have written a letter to Premier Doug Ford, raising concerns about invoking a constitutional clause that could see homeless people and those struggling with substance addiction stripped of their fundamental human rights.

About 450 signatories—including community legal clinics throughout the province—have cautioned Premier Ford against using the ‘notwithstanding clause’, a section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that allows Parliament or provincial governments to temporarily override certain sections of the Charter.

This comes after a group of mayors in Ontario asked the province to invoke the clause to “help them handle encampments and addiction in their communities,” which Ford himself appeared to encourage them to do during an unrelated press conference, CP24 has reported.

Legal professionals and academics in the province, however, say that this is an unjust use of the notwithstanding clause. “The notwithstanding clause was never intended to be used to deprive vulnerable groups of constitutional protection,” they wrote.

“It was to be rarely, if ever invoked, and for the opposite purpose.

“The notwithstanding clause was to operate as a safety valve in the exceptional event of a judicial decision that was clearly contrary to the public interest.”

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