An Ontario municipality is bracing for a potentially tense council meeting, which a group of advocates calling for governance reform and supporters of a councillor facing a criminal charge are both set to attend.
The City of Niagara Falls will meet for its regular council session on Tuesday, with stepped-up security plans in place for a meeting where councillors will discuss dramatic events in June.
Among the items on the agenda is a report on its June 17 meeting, where three representatives of the Women of Ontario Say No were arrested inside council chambers.
The trio attended the meeting hoping to discuss a reform to provincial law which would put councillors facing criminal charges on paid leave. They were told they could not make their presentation, and instead, they sat in the room with signs reading “Women of Ontario Say No.”
Staff with the local municipality called the police, who told the three advocates they were in danger of trespassing and arrested them. They were later released without charge.
Niagara Falls staff said the group could not make its presentation because they felt it interfered with an ongoing legal matter, although they did not cite exactly what they were referring to. Coun. Mike Strange, a Niagara Falls councillor, was charged with domestic assault by Niagara Regional Police in May, a charge which has not been proven in court.
The events of that June 17 meeting will be front and centre again on Tuesday because a report written by city staff on the incident will be discussed by councillors. Supporters of the advocacy group and of Coun. Strange are also both set to attend.
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Strange said he has asked his friends and supporters to attend the meeting after feeling targeted by the Women of Ontario Say No in June.
A communication seen by Global News suggested Strange had asked members of a local group he is involved with to fill the council chamber to make it difficult for the advocates to find space to sit and to support the councillor.
“I will be making a statement tomorrow during the council meeting and yes, I invited my fellow members of the Falls View Hose Brigade because at the last meeting I felt targeted by the protesters,” Strange wrote in an email to Global News.
“I am innocent of the allegations against me and am confident that it will be proven in court.”
The Women of Ontario Say No are also planning to attend and said they will bring signage with them to city hall. They told Global News, however, they do not plan to hold it up inside the chamber itself, a key point of contention last time around.
The group is pursuing potential legal action against the City of Niagara Falls, demanding they are allowed to make the delegation they originally asked to share with councillors.
“That is really the most critical aspect of what my clients are looking for,” lawyer Susan Toth previously told Global News. “They’re just looking for the right to exercise their democratic process and speak to their elected officials. And it’s a bit baffling why the city is so afraid to let these women speak.”
The chief administrative officer for Niagara Falls said extra security measures would be in place at the meeting, including requiring those attending inside the chambers to agree that protests should not be held inside the room.
“The City of Niagara Falls has a third party security company on site at all times and we also use our bylaw officers for additional security,” CAO Jason Burgess said in an email to Global News.
“We have established additional security protocols for the Council meeting tomorrow night due to a number of media reports and increased risk.”
Burgess previously said that, while the city did not press charges against the advocates in June, its position could change if they are arrested again.
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