The City of Toronto today filed an application with the Supreme Court of Canada to seek Leave to Appeal a decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal regarding Bill 5, the Better Local Government Act, 2018.
In September, the Ontario Court of Appeal’s majority opinion ruled 3-2 that the legislation that reduced the City’s wards from 47 to 25 in the middle of the 2018 election was constitutional.
In January 2019, Toronto City Council directed staff “to pursue a Leave to Appeal application to the Supreme Court of Canada in the event the Province is successful on its appeal at the Court of Appeal.” The City has now done so and will await the Court’s decision on whether to hear the appeal.
Should the Court grant the application, legal arguments will be led by City of Toronto in-house counsel. The application is available online: https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/9739-Memorandum-of-Argument-of-the-Applicants.pdf
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