The Region of Waterloo will head to court to defend amendments it made to its code of use bylaw last year.
The Calgary based Canadian Constitution Foundation is challenging the bylaw in an application filed to the Ontario Superior Court last month.
The charity dedicated to defending constitutional rights and freedoms is asking the court to quash the bylaw on the basis that it's beyond the jurisdiction of the Region of Waterloo and is therefore illegal to enforce.
The CCF claims the bylaw violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by limiting the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.
Motivated by calls to help eradicate Islamophobia and other forms of hatred expressed on public property, the Region of Waterloo sought to toughen its code of use bylaw to deter anyone from using harassing, discriminatory and otherwise offensive language in its public spaces and facilities.
The changes, which laid out measures for enforcement, including fines of up to $5,000, were adopted in a unanimous vote at regional council in September 2023.
The bylaw prohibits harassing behaviour based on race, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation, socio-economic status or housing status, and other protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code occurring within public spaces that are regionally owned or occupied.
It applies to all regional property, including Grand River Transit, and gives bylaw and security staff the power to remove any individual or group deemed to be "causing or permitting communication with any person in a way that causes the person, reasonably in all circumstances, to feel harassed."
Kristopher Kinsinger, a lawyer with SmithValeriote LLP in Guelph is representing the CCF in its challenge of the bylaw and said the legislation effectively usurps federal legislation in the criminal code.
The organization's stance is that while it agrees with the intent of the bylaw to limit hate speech, the region overstepped its bounds by enacting a bylaw designed to limit freedom of expression. Any concerns about hate speech are already covered by federal laws, Kinsinger said.
He said the region has retained a lawyer and said it will take some time to review the application before responding.
Kinsinger noted that prior to adopting the revised bylaw, Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic tabled a motion recommending the region get the changes peer reviewed, but that motion was voted down by council.
The Region of Waterloo said it would not comment on the legal challenge as it is before the courts.
The region's manager of communications, Lynsey Slupeiks, was unable to confirm whether the revised bylaw has been enforced since it was enacted.
Meantime, hate crimes and hate incidents have spiked across the region over the last year.
The Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and other geo-political conflicts are considered contributing factors in the local rise in hate.
A March StatsCan report ranked Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge among the top three census metropolitan areas in Canada for all motivations of police-reported hate crime.
