I wholeheartedly support Olivia Chow for Mayor, and urge you to vote for her on Monday.
I’ve had the opportunity of working closely with Olivia for many years, and know how committed to social justice she is.
I also know how effective she can be.
She has earned our support.
John Tory is no progressive.
His refusal to be clear on his position on our waterfront is worrying
Brian was recently in the news after his complaint to Toronto’s integrity commissioner resulted in city councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, being docked three months of pay for violating council’s rules on accepting gifts and benefits.
Continue reading “Brian Iler holds councillor Mammoliti accountable for improper fundraising”
Tuesday was a good day for NoJetsTo, a grassroots organization fighting against Porter Airline’s plan to fly jets our to Toronto’s island airport. Although city council voted in favour of proceeding with a study of the proposed expansion, it also approved four motions which together severely constrain the scope of this study. Together, these motions, which aim to hold Porter to its word and to protect the right of private pilots to use the airport, make the success of the expansion much less likely. Read more on NoJetsTo’s blog.
Brian Iler is Chair of CommunityAIR, a supporting organization of NoJetsTO.
In November 2012 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice held that Toronto’s shark fin by-law was ultra vires.
Eng v. Toronto (City) was an application seeking a declaration that By-law No. 12347-2011 of the City of Toronto (Shark fin by-law) was ultra vires and of no force and effect. The by-law provides, in section 3, that “no person shall possess, sell or consume shark fin or shark fin food products within the city of Toronto”. The by-law was passed by a vote of 38-4 at council. The applicants argued that the shark fin by-law’s purpose was directed against the extinction of sharks and lacked a proper municipal purpose. The court agreed that this environmental threat was a purpose of the ban on shark fin food products as it was “a theme that persists in the public record of the proposed ban” and “environmental well-being of the City” was mentioned the preamble.
The applicants submitted that the City was the “wrong level of government” for the by-law and that there was no identifiable environmental benefit to the city. The court rejected the first argument and accepted the second.
Read more in the Ontario Bar Association’s Envronews (pdf) »
The “Class EA” was introduced to the Ontario environmental assessment process shortly after the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act was passed, in 1976. The purpose of Class EAs was said to be to streamline approvals for undertakings that were similar in nature (i.e. belonging to the same ‘class’ of project) and that generally had predictable and easy to mitigate effects and therefore did not need full environmental assessments. Class assessments were immediately used for municipal infrastructure projects. Class EAs are an attempt to balance many competing policy factors including reducing the cost of municipal infrastructure, avoiding duplication with other municipal processes and the difficulty of predicting environmental effects on a class‑wide basis. However, strong pressures to exempt an ever growing array of projects from full environmental assessments have led to the growth of Class EAs, and Class EAs have come to dominate EA practices in Ontario by a wide margin.
Continue reading “Jarvis Bike Lane Removal Exposes Serious Weaknesses in Municipal Class Approvals”
The Toronto Cyclists Union released a legal opinion (pdf) by Laura Bowman today which outlines the case that the City of Toronto must conduct a Schedule C Environmental Assessment in order to remove the Jarvis Street bike lanes and re-install the centre reversible lane. The bike lanes have been slated to be removed this summer.
In an article on spacingtoronto.ca, Mathew Blackett praises the action, writing, “instead of the typical cycling activist action of taking over an intersection and holding bikes high overhead to piss off drivers, the Union is taking the game to the City.”
The Union has given the city ten days to respond after which they will submit their request to the Minister of the Environment.
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