I urge your government to: …

I urge your government to:
–Cancel Bill 5 and plans to scrap the Endangered Species Act or implement “regulation-free zones” for resource extraction.
–Commit to strengthening the Endangered Species Act.
–Commit to building partnerships with First Nations through the principles of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (UNDRIP) for development projects throughout the province.
–Co-develop any regulatory frameworks affecting Special Economic Zones, conservation, or mining approvals with First Nations

While Bill 5 is called “Protecting Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act” it would serve Ontario up on a platter by giving Premier Ford and his Cabinet Trump-like authoritarian powers to immunize anyone he likes from all municipal and provincial laws. That includes “friends” and donors who will line up for these special privileges. Far from “protecting” Ontario, Bill 5 would allow all provincial and municipal laws to be violated wherever the Cabinet decides. The Bill would also repeal the Endangered Species Act altogether, ending almost all endangered species protection. As a result sprawl-developers and even U.S. companies, can eradicate our rarest plants of animals and their habitat with impunity.

Just like the U.S. President’s false claims that his tariffs against Canada are about reducing deaths from fentanyl, the Premier’s framing of Bill 5 as a response to that “economic force” is the thinnest of false pretexts for a massive—and unprecedented attack on the rule of law with no real connection to that problem.