Chatham mayor flip-flops on using Charter to tackle homeless camps

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CHATHAM-KENT — Less than two months after signing a letter with the mayors of Windsor and other Ontario cities in support of using Canada’s Charter to crack down on homeless encampments, Chatham-Kent’s mayor backed down this week.

“I was getting desperate,” Darrin Canniff told colleagues Monday, explaining why he joined Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and 10 other municipal leaders in signing a letter to the Doug Ford government.

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But at this week’s council meeting, Canniff voted in favour of a motion by North Kent Coun. Rhonda Jubenville to denounce the mayoral request.

“Moving forward, I don’t want this distraction of the notwithstanding clause,” Canniff told council.

In November, Chatham Coun. Alysson Storey called out Canniff for joining 11 other Ontario Big City Mayors group members in signing a letter asking the province to invoke a Charter clause, where necessary, as a tool to deal with the issue.

The notwithstanding clause — Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — allows provincial or federal governments to override parts of the Charter for up to five years.

Canniff, who voted in favour of this week’s council motion, admitted he was frustrated when he signed the mayoral letter, citing the lack of resources municipalities have.

“It’s a slippery slope that I am not willing to go down,” Jubenville said in opening remarks on her motion.

That motion states that Chatham-Kent opposes using the clause in connection with any legislation to “facilitate the eviction or displacement of encampment residents.”

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It also affirmed that all individuals, regardless of their housing status or personal circumstances, are entitled to full protection of their Charter rights.

Jubenville said those in homeless camps need treatments and help finding suitable housing.

“Removing these persons from encampments will take away their access to life, liberty and personal security,” she said. “It will only mask the problem municipalities are being faced with.”

The motion also calls on the province to work with municipalities to address the root causes of homelessness and carry more of the financial burden. It will be sent to the Ontario government, attorney general, finance and health ministers and municipal organizations.

West Kent Coun. Melissa Harrigan applauded Jubenville’s motion, calling it a human rights approach to the crisis.

“Let’s send a message to the province that we’re not willing to take human rights away from people who are already experiencing life at its most vulnerable state,” she said.

Chatham Coun. Alysson Storey expressed similar sentiments.

“It’s interesting that this issue has galvanized members of this council from across the political spectrum,” she said.

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“I think you know when something is a terrible idea, when so many of us with different political beliefs can unite to share our concerns about it.”

In January 2023, the Ontario Court of Justice ruled Waterloo could not use its municipal bylaws to remove a large homeless encampment in downtown Kitchener.

Explaining his signature on the Oct. 31 mayors’ letter, Dilkens told reporters in November that “we can’t let the courts decide how to deal with homelessness.” He said municipalities “need all the tools available” to deal with the issue.

Dilkens’s signature came without prior public discussion by Windsor city council. Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie joined more than 70 municipal and regional councillors from across Ontario who responded to the mayoral letter with one of their own, calling on Premier Ford not to invoke the notwithstanding clause to tackle homelessness.

“At the end of the day, without actually addressing the infrastructure issues and the service issues, it amounts to, essentially … a leaf-blowing exercise that doesn’t help anyone,” McKenzie told the Star.

— With files from Doug Schmidt

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