Is Bubble Bylaw A Cash Grab? THE VOTER

Is this Bubble Bylaw an attempt to restrict protesters who the City of Ottawa disagrees with or have they discovered a novel way to plug that budget hole?

At $100,000 a head, you would only need 140 protesters to wipe out OC Transpo’s $14-million problem.

Don’t they realize that judges will rarely, if ever, impose such a ridiculous fine. Even if the bylaw itself were constitutional (which I don’t believe is the case), the courts are more likely to hand out fines in line with other municipal bylaws or, possibly, provincial offences. Any law that is not enforced soon becomes irrelevant and police or bylaw officers would soon stop handing out tickets except in the most egregious of circumstances. In most of those situations, there are already laws on the books that would be more appropriate and easier to prosecute than this one.

If people are ticketed under this bylaw, what kind of court and law enforcement resources will have to go into taking these cases through the system? I can assure you that, with the threat of a $100,000 fine potentially being imposed, very few people are going to go without a fight. I haven’t analyzed the socio-economic status of every protester at events across the city but I would suggest that very few Ottawa residents have a spare hundred grand kicking around to put towards such a fine.

I would expect that most judges would hear that argument frequently even after ‘guilt’ had been established. There is also a legal principle that the punishment should fit the crime. Judges will be confronted with lists of offences that have smaller penalties but may be considered more serious. Once a couple of judges hand down fines of $50 or $100, that sets a precedent and soon becomes the standard unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Even if it passes a constitutional challenge, which is doubtful, this bylaw is very unlikely to make much difference in the city. My first advice to the city would be to wait until the Vaughan version has been tested in court and see where that goes. Unless, of course, the city has lots of money available to fund an expensive court battle on constitutional grounds. From what I hear, they’re in no position to do that.

The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.

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