13 Ontario mayors have drafted a letter to Doug Ford asking the Premier to use the Charter's notwithstanding clause to bypass the court system and allow them to evict encampments — even when there is nowhere else for people to go. 

This could include decisions like a 2023 ruling in Waterloo, which blocked the city from clearing an encampment because of a lack of shelter. In this decision, the court ruled that clearing the Waterloo encampment would be unconstitutional: the city couldn't remove the encampment without having enough shelter beds, and to do so would be a violation of homeless people's Charter-protected rights.

Bypassing important legal decisions like these by invoking the notwithstanding clause would mean that local governments would not be accountable for providing shelter beds, affordable housing, or services for homeless people. In fact, using the notwithstanding clause for this purpose would take away the responsibility of cities for homelessness and completely override homeless people's right to housing, safety, and security. It would amount to using the Charter to violate the very rights the Charter protects. 

Nothing about this would solve homelessness. Only providing solutions like permanent, affordable housing, as well as more decent shelter beds and more voluntary treatment and crisis beds, can help. 

Tell Doug Ford and the mayors of Barrie, Brampton, Brantford, Cambridge, Chatham-Kent, Clarington, Guelph, Oakville, Oshawa, Pickering, St. Catherines, Sudbury, and Windsor that:

• It is unacceptable to remove the Charter-protected rights of an entire demographic group of people instead of fulfilling your government responsibilities to them, like building affordable housing;
• Encampments can't be removed without providing housing, shelter, and treatment options that people can actually access and would choose. 

The notwithstanding clause was not created so that people's rights can be removed; it is intended to be used in only the rarest circumstances. With 234,000 Ontarians who are currently or at risk of becoming homeless, Doug Ford and Ontario's cities need to work together to provide the solutions we know that work. That's what leadership looks like.