For Immediate Release
Wednesday morning, minutes before Royal Assent was granted for the New Deal for Toronto Act, an application for Judicial Review of Bill 154 was launched in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by the citizens group, Ontario Place Protectors – notwithstanding Bill 154’s explicit language prohibiting any citizen challenges to anything the provincial government might decide to do at Ontario Place, including lawsuits such as this one. Contrary to its name, Bill 154 focusses mainly on giving the Ontario government unfettered powers to do as it pleases at Ontario Place.
The government has taken extraordinary powers to ensure an unobstructed route to the destruction of the cultural landscape of Ontario Place, exempting itself from any environmental and heritage laws, preventing citizens from challenging any government action including misfeasance…we believe the provincial government is breaching the principles of public trust; Bill 154 does not comport with the rule of law, eliminates the right to virtually all claims and or challenges that could be brought against government, and does not comport with the rules of natural justice and procedural fairness.
Bill 154 was rammed through the house, skipped all committee hearings, removing any opportunity for any member of the public to be heard.
“My clients feel the breach with the public is so egregious they are launching this lawsuit”, says lawyer Eric Gillespie. “Taking such extraordinary powers for the frivolous purpose of clearing the way for a project by a private Corporation on public lands simply cannot go unchallenged. It is our intent to see Bill 154 declared unlawful, therefore of no force and effect.”
For more information Contact:
Ontario Place Protectors
c/o Eric K Gillespie K.
egillespie@gillespielaw.ca
416 703 6362
416 436 7473
