{"id":2037,"date":"2007-06-24T14:02:39","date_gmt":"2007-06-24T18:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2037"},"modified":"2007-06-24T14:28:27","modified_gmt":"2007-06-24T18:28:27","slug":"supreme-court-establishes-right-to-open-city-governments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/06\/24\/supreme-court-establishes-right-to-open-city-governments\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court establishes right to open city governments"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

London, Ontario city hall\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In a pleasing precedent, the Supreme Court of Canada last week ruled unanimously<\/a> that all Ontarians have a right to observe their municipal government do its business in public on most matters.<\/p>\n

The decision comes as a result of a complaint about the City of London debating in closed session a bylaw to freeze development at a particular location. The lawsuit was launched by the development company that owns the land, in an attempt to get the bylaw quashed (presumably so they could go ahead with their development) — an example of private interest resulting in public good, if there ever was one. The court ruled that the right of citizens to observe city council decision-making was so important that its violation was sufficient grounds to overturn the bylaw.<\/p>\n

While there are still a few issues where municipal councils can meet in closed session, hopefully this judgement will make all city councils think twice before they try to carry on their business without public scrutiny.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Star<\/em> not only reported the story<\/a>, but also wrote an editorial about the importance of open municipal government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

photo by Steve Johnson<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London, Ontario city hall\u00a0 In a pleasing precedent, the Supreme Court of Canada last week ruled unanimously that all Ontarians have a right to observe their municipal government do its business in public on most matters. The decision comes as a result of a complaint about the City of London debating in closed session aContinue reading “Supreme Court establishes right to open city governments”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[457,359,6125,21,6126,4354,339,341],"class_list":["post-2037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-canada","tag-london","tag-ontario-city-hall-in","tag-other-cities","tag-steve-johnson","tag-supreme-court","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto-star"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court establishes right to open city governments - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/06\/24\/supreme-court-establishes-right-to-open-city-governments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court establishes right to open city governments - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"London, Ontario city hall\u00a0 In a pleasing precedent, the Supreme Court of Canada last week ruled unanimously that all Ontarians have a right to observe their municipal government do its business in public on most matters. 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