Your nuisance bylaw is very disturbing. The intention to protect citizens from runaway parties and nuisances is served with it, but not without grave transgressions against our charters of rights and freedoms. Sections which prevent persons from the ability to:
• distribute handbills or notices
• host or participate in a public rally or protest that exceeds 24 consecutive hours
• camp, dwell or lodge
• place, install or erect any temporary structure including any tent
are similar to what one might find in North Korea, the USSR, Iran or any other repressive regime. In Canada we have and treasure our democracy. Your expansive ‘city hall knows best’ reasoning on including these draconian measures not only places officials in a position to exercise personal biases in the application of law, but furthermore destroys our ability to live in a free society. You must remove these sections before this law is passed. If you do not you will likely find yourselves with a charter challenge – something I do not want my taxes to pay for – the outcome of which, as any lawyer will tell you, will be that you will lose.Other sections, including curbs on the ability to;
• obstruct a sidewalk
• cause trouble or annoyance to any other person
• interfere with any permitted activity carried out by any other person
are far too vague to be enforceable and again allow the tyranny of city employee’s biases to enter the fray when meting out justice. Under such provisions a handicapped person in a wheelchair could be considered to be obstructing a sidewalk, if an officer or authority takes a particular dislike to the handicapped person’s message, politics, cause or demeanour. This is not justice, this is a ham-fisted response to too many student parties been exploded into a general assault on personal freedom. TB