CCLA launches Charter challenge against bubble zone protest bylaw in Vaughan, Ont.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is launching a constitutional challenge against Vaughan's bubble zone protest bylaw — one of several in Ontario that restricts protests around places of worship, schools and child-care centres. 

The bylaw, which passed in June last year, bans organizing or participating in a "nuisance demonstration" within 100 metres of the property line of any vulnerable social infrastructure, which also includes hospitals and care facilities. 

"Vaughan's bylaw punitively prohibits an extremely wide range of peaceful protests," said Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, director of the CCLA's fundamental freedoms program, at a news conference Tuesday. 

"It severely infringes upon freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association in a manner that is not justified in a free and democratic society." 

CBC Toronto has reached out to the Vaughan mayor's office for comment. 

The bylaw defines a nuisance demonstration as one or more people "protesting against something or expressing views on any issue … whether it is intended or not, that is likely, on an objective standard, to cause a reasonable person to be intimidated." 

This means the person is either concerned for their safety or security, or they are unable to access vulnerable social infrastructure, the bylaw reads. 

'This is not a narrow limit on free speech'

Toronto, Brampton and Oakville have passed similar bylaws in recent months. In May, Ottawa city council directed its staff to develop its own bubble zone bylaw.

But the CCLA chose to launch its challenge against Vaughan because it was the first municipality in Ontario to pass such a bylaw, and it also has "extremely broad prohibitions," said Daniel Goudge, lawyer at Stockwoods LLP, who is representing the association. 

WATCH | Toronto passed bubble zone bylaw in May after hours of debate in city council:

Toronto passes bylaw to restrict protests around places of worship, schools

1 month ago

Duration 3:55

Toronto city councillors have officially passed a bylaw to limit protests around institutions like schools and places of worship. CBC’s Lane Harrison breaks down the decision that followed a heated debate.  

Under Toronto's bylaw, vulnerable institutions can apply for a buffer zone around them, which would last for a year. The buffer zone would apply to city property within 50 metres of the institution.

Vaughan's bylaw does not have an application-based system and its buffer zone is double the size. 

Vaughan also imposes a maximum fine of $100,000 for anyone found guilty of an offence under the bylaw, while Toronto is imposing a maximum $5,000 fine for people who refuse to leave a protected area.

"This is not a narrow limit on free speech," Goudge said. 

He said Vaughan's bylaw gives enforcement officers — which include municipal enforcement officers and police — the power to decide what is considered acceptable protest speech. 

Protests outside a school opposing education system cuts, for example, could now be prohibited, he said. 

Bylaw passed after protests outside synagogue

Vaughan's bubble zone bylaw was passed following several demonstrations that took place in Thornhill outside a synagogue. Demonstrators said they gathered to decry a real estate event that marketed occupied land in the West Bank, and counter-protesters showed up in response to a call-out from leaders of the synagogue.  

Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca proposed the bylaw in March 2024, saying at the time that "large, ugly protests" near synagogues and schools in Thornhill were "deeply, deeply concerning to our residents." 

McNicoll said everyone in Canada is entitled to physical safety, and police can and should intervene to protect public safety. But she said police already have broad powers to fulfil their mandate and did not need an additional bylaw. 

"We know too well how punitive laws initially passed in the name of protecting vulnerable communities can easily be co-opted to suppress marginalized voices striving to challenge the status quo," she said.

Stodge said the CCLA filed a notice of application with the court on Monday, and it is now in the process of being issued. He said the notice will be delivered to the City of Vaughan on Tuesday.

Richard Marceau, vice-president of external affairs and general counsel for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said bubble zone bylaws are legal and necessary. 

Jewish communities across Canada "have been subjected to escalating protests targeting our synagogues, schools and community centres," he said in a statement Tuesday. 

He said the bylaws fall under reasonable limits to protected rights under the Constitution. 

But Louise Smith, a member of the Coalition for Charter Rights and Freedoms, a Toronto-based advocacy group, said many of these bylaws "are based on biased portrayals of people protesting for Palestinian rights as hateful or violent." 

"It is to the detriment of Canadian society for this kind of racism to be formally adopted as municipal policy," she said in an email Wednesday.