Toronto City Council and the War on Freedom

Toronto City Council and the War on Freedom.
Mike Eisler


City Council is misusing their power by taking away the rights and freedoms of the very citizens who elected them. This is evident in two recent decisions reached by the city’s councillors; namely, the ban on plastic bags and the condemnation of the term “Israeli apartheid.” By banning local merchants from providing plastic bags, the council has stepped on the freedoms of consumers and businesses by banning a product without proper justification. By using city funding as leverage to suppress a local group opposed to Israeli apartheid, they are setting a dangerous precedent for future decision-making.


In a democratic Canada, restrictions should only be placed on products that demonstrably and severely harm the public. When the risk to the public is minimal, it has become customary to use methods other than banning, such as providing economic disincentives for said products. High taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and gasoline are examples of this. Just as banning the use of gasoline would be absurd, so is the banning of plastic bags.


Like many other Canadians, Torontonians are required to bag their garbage in plastic bags. So not only will they be REQUIRED to buy millions of plastic bags from the store, but they will be FINED if they carry them home in a single plastic bag… The freedom of businesses to provide families with products that will help them is essential to the proper functioning of our economy. That is why city council’s lack of foresight is so astonishing. It hurts the rights of consumers and businesses without addressing the environmental issues that the councillors claim to care about. The hypocrisy of the move is easy to see for anyone who is in touch with real families. A plastic bag, after it is used the first time, can be reused a few times before it is used for household garbage. If city council is worried about people NOT reusing their bags, then why not add an extra tax or surcharge to plastic bags instead of banning them? Torontonians use 800 million plastic bags each year, so a tax of just 1 cent per bag could raise 8 million dollars to be used for environmental projects. Or it could be used to cover all the grants to Toronto’s major arts organizations (including Pride Toronto), with a couple million left over for the council to squander on enforcement for silly bans and bylaws.


Counter-productive laws aren’t the trick City Council has for limiting the freedoms of its citizens. It also uses its financial clout to suppress free thought. In 2011 City Council tried to withhold funding to the Pride Parade in one of the most disgusting attacks on free speech to date. Their target, “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid,” had little choice but to give in to the pressure from the Council.


The funding appears safe this year, but the council is condemning the use of the words “Israeli apartheid” and warning Pride that next year’s funding is at stake if QuAIA marches in the parade. By restricting freedom of speech through financial pressure, City Council is overstepping their boundaries. If funding is to be provided to parades of this sort at all, then it should surely be provided without political conditions attached. The freedom to voice our opposition to the unjust is an important part of the Canadian identity and instead of less dialogue, City Council should be encouraging more.


The actions of Toronto City Council show that they do not care about freedom. They care nothing for practicality or for the proper functioning of families, small businesses, or the economy in general. Instead, they have made it clear that they all are about image. Rather than non-intrusive green incentives that move the economy in a green direction, the City Council has chosen the most blunt of weapons: the ban. This demonstrates their desire to be SEEN as cleaning up the city, rather than to actually do it. With regards to their stance on Israeli apartheid, they are trying to stifle debate on an issue by condemning the mention of the issue itself. City Council has no business forcing its political views on the public and should not be using public finances as a weapon in its war on the freedom of speech.