Judge stops Doug Ford's plans to cut Toronto city council in half

An Ontario judge has ruled against Premier Doug Ford’s planned cuts to the size of Toronto city council.

This morning, Justice Edward Belobaba found Bill 5 to be a breach of the Charter and not justified.

This means the election will go ahead next month with the same amount of councillors as this term.

Breaking: Justice Belobaba finds #bill5 breaches s.2(b) of the Charter, and has not been justified under s.1. Declared of no force and effect effective immediately. October 22nd election will proceed as scheduled but with 47 wards, not 25.

— Bruce Ryder (@BBRyder) September 10, 2018

Last month, Toronto City Council voted to legally challenge the Ontario government’s Bill 5, which is also known as the Better Local Government Act, which slashes the number of councillors from 47 to 25 ahead of the upcoming municipal election.

Bill 5 also cancels planned elections in the regional municipalities of Muskoka, Peel, York and Niagara. The head of council in each region will instead be appointed.

Mayor John Tory backed the court challenge, calling Bill 5 “wrong and unacceptable.”

“Challenging this legislation and the process used to introduce it is the right and responsible thing to do,” said Tory last month.

More to come