John Nesbitt is an accounting clerk, employed by the municipality of Uptown, Ontario, in the town’s financial services department. Like all municipalities, the town has an elected group of councillors and a mayor, who meet to set policy and enact bylaws under the authority of the Ontario Municipal Act. The town employs a large group of employees, from those who work out of doors maintaining streets and roads, to those who work in the town hall itself, serving the public and managing the complex business affairs of the municipality.
Following a recent election, the newly elected mayor and councillors embarked on a plan that, in their view, will improve the organizational culture of the staff and managers employed by the town. Two new by-laws are passed:
By-law #1 makes it a requirement that all full-time, permanent employees of the municipality are required to reside within town limits. The motive for this bylaw is to demonstrate that the town is a good place to live, and employees who earn a living working for the town should be expected to live in the town.
By-law #2 states that no full-time, permanent employee of the town is permitted to publicly criticize the decisions of the town council.
John Nesbitt lives with his family on an acreage some kilometres outside of the town limits. He is a full-time, permanent employee who has worked for Uptown for more than seven years, and he has no desire to move his residence or to seek new employment. Nesbitt writes a letter to the editor of the local newspaper; the letter is published, and is critical of the new residency requirement bylaw. Nesbitt’s supervisor advises him that he should write a letter of retraction to the newspaper, and asks what his intentions are regarding his future employment with the town. Nesbitt seeks legal counsel from a lawyer who believes that court action against the municipality, under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is warranted.
Explain why the Charter applies to the by-laws.
Identify the specific Charter rights or freedoms that the by-laws may have infringed.
Apply section 1 of the Charter to determine the validity of each by-law.
For each question, apply the 3-step legal analysis.