A legal clinic from Waterloo region has sounded the alarm after being denied the chance to speak on topics of homelessness at a recent City of Cambridge council meeting.
The Waterloo Region Community Legal Service (WRCLS) was recently denied the chance to speak to a motion at city council that would reinforce Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett's call to the province for more power to handle issues related to homelessness.
"We were told we couldn't delegate because of an ongoing litigation where we're representing two plaintiffs involving the Branchton encampment," said Ashley Schuitema, executive director of WRCLS.
Schuitema said the city was relying on a bylaw that states that delegations will not be permitted to address council if they are involved in litigation or expected to proceed with litigation against the city.
The City of Cambridge did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
The legal service is representing two residents at an encampment in Cambridge, but Schuitema maintains she would not have spoken specifically about their case but about homelessness in Waterloo region in general.
"They were relying on a procedural bylaw that prohibits people from being able to delegate about ongoing litigation, which is a bylaw that makes sense, but in our opinion, they were interpreting it far too broadly," she said.
The concern that Schuitema and her legal clinic have is that the interpretation of this bylaw may be used to silence other groups, individuals or experts from speaking at city council meetings.
The motion that WRCLS wanted to speak to involved the legal and social ramifications of those living in encampments and the violation of their rights.
At the council meeting, councillors Ross Earnshaw, Sheri Roberts and Scott Hamilton opposed the mayor's motion, particularly its call for an urgent review of mandatory mental health and addiction care and treatment.
After some heated debate, the motion was ultimately passed and the city will call on other municipalities as well as the province to expand power.
Schuitema was dismayed after the motion passed and was upset that they were not able to be the voice of those who are living these experiences in camps and on the streets.
"We are that voice and if we're going to be silenced and not be able to go and advocate on behalf of people living in poverty it's concerning about the democratic process and the ability to participate in that process," she said.
"It's really quite concerning as a way of silencing people who are particularly vulnerable and not letting them have their voices heard."
She adds that their role as a legal clinic is to be active as an advocate around systemic issues for people who are living in poverty and who may not be able to get up and delegate at a council meeting.
The legal clinic did admit the city gave them an opportunity late in the day of the council meeting to offer a non-legal member of staff to come and delegate, but that a written submission of the content of their delegation must be presented to city staff.
Schuitema feels like the conditions were unfair and came too late in the day to logistically make things happen.
At the council meeting, other social workers and delegates were able to speak on the issue as a whole.
Going forward, WRCLS is looking at what their options are to contest being shut out of city council meetings and are hopeful they will be able to speak at other meetings, even if they pertain to homelessness.
"We're very worried, particularly seeing Cambridge taking a really heavy-handed approach with a lot of these things like keeping us out and not allowing us to delegate is essentially just part and parcel of that very heavy-handed approach," said Schuitema. "We're certainly not going to sit back and just let this happen."
The legal service is hoping this will not set a precedent to stop other experts from delegating on hot-button or important issues.
"We have the wherewithal to sort of speak up and ask questions and raise the issue about it, but we don't know who else they're they're saying can't speak," added Schuitema.
"It certainly makes you wonder; who else is being kept out of this process? So it's really concerning."
