With the rapid erosion of accountability in the municipal government sector, sped up by Doug Ford’s determination to hand even more power to mayors, proposed provincial legislation to protect residents from abusive municipal elected officials is needed now more than ever.
Ontario’s municipal taxpayers also desperately need updated legislation to overhaul woefully inadequate accountability mechanisms meant to keep local elected representatives in check. The current system has created a dire situation for residents whose tax dollars are open to widespread abuse in the province’s municipal government sector.
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As the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference begins, nearly half of Ontario’s municipalities have already signed onto the cause promoted by The Women of Ontario Say No. Founder Emily McIntosh is determined to make Bill 9 stronger—so local elected officials who behave abusively are held accountable.
The unit responsible for catching the criminals who are exploiting children online is increasingly being asked to do more with the same. The small contingent of officers handles a disturbing number of cases every day. They are growing more complex as legal rules change and technology evolves.
Once thought of as a distant danger, wildfires are now igniting in southern Ontario’s backyard, fuelled by record heat, drought and a changing climate. Fire seasons are stretching longer across the country with increasingly volatile conditions and open-fire bans across much of Southern Ontario due to extremely hot, dry conditions.
In Kawartha Lakes, known for its serene cottages, August brought multiple blazes that spread through parched forests. Experts warn that more Ontario communities, like other parts of the country that have been forced to evacuate, will face increased risks in the future.
After a year of stalled negotiations with the Region of Peel over pay disparity, mental health support and chronic underfunding, Peel Paramedics reached a tentative deal late July, achieving key gains in some areas including wages, while other issues are still unresolved.
The cost of the new South Niagara Hospital is not the only issue many residents have drawn attention to. Outside Niagara Falls, where the facility is being constructed, many are voicing anger over the loss of community-based healthcare in favour of more regional coverage out of the new hospital. Across Niagara, residents are rallying to save local services including facilities slated for closure.
Following controversy over recent years around taxpayer subsidies to developers, who expect the public to cover a range of costs to maximize their own profits, Welland is now facing a similar demand. And Mayor Frank Campion has gotten behind the request, which could see taxpayers cover a total of $80 million so the builder in question can avoid paying various costs to get its project to market.
With the failure to spend $1.2 billion collected from taxpayers for capital funding covered by residents who work tirelessly to make both ends meet, fiscal mismanagement under Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has reached new lows. Dozens of critical projects remain stalled—despite the City collecting all the necessary funds from taxpayers who are not getting what they paid for.
As Canada stands at a critical point between fossil-fuel dependence and a clean energy future, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first few months in office have revealed a balancing act between climate ambition and industry appeasement. From scrapping the federal consumer carbon tax to hinting at new oil pipelines— while touting renewable growth—his policies have sparked debate over whether Canada will help lead the global energy transition or cling to a carbon-based future.
As Ontario faces another extreme heat warning once again this weekend, the difference between those who can stay cool and those who can’t is becoming a life-threatening crisis. Seniors and renters, especially in aging buildings across southern Ontario, are trapped without reliable air conditioning as heatwaves grow more intense. A recent UN report warns extreme heat disproportionately harms the elderly and low-income groups worldwide. Yet in Ontario, outdated laws and lack of enforcement leave many vulnerable to dangerous conditions. Advocates argue that access to cooling must be treated as an essential human right, not a luxury.
Brampton residents are being kept in the dark about the future of a project that Mayor Brown and his council followers have for years claimed will transform the decaying downtown core. It was recently announced that the Nelson Square Parking Garage will be torn down to make way for the Centre for Innovation, but a contractor has yet to be chosen for the long delayed project which City Hall still doesn’t have a timeline for.
Despite her failure to show up for two scheduled court dates, the charges against Carly Young in relation to the tragic death of Dakota, her German shepherd, will go to trial on September 18.
Animal advocates worry the ongoing reluctance by the police and justice system to file criminal charges for animal cruelty allows abusers to avoid accountability.
The Lake Ontario shoreline, once protected against erosion by concrete barriers, is now grappling with the intensified impacts of climate change. Rather than relying on more concrete, a groundbreaking initiative is looking to nature for answers.
The Lake Ontario Coastal Resilience Pilot Project, launched by three conservation authorities, is exploring innovative, nature-based solutions to tackle rising waters and shifting landscapes. With a science-driven, collaborative approach, the project unites conservationists, municipalities, and communities to reshape the future of the coastline, offering a sustainable and resilient path forward for both the environment and the people who rely on it.
Frustrated by unanswered questions, ignored public objections and what he sees as a breach of public trust in handling the proposed blasting quarry, Tony Sevelka has filed formal complaints with both the Ontario Ombudsman and the Information and Privacy Commissioner, calling for a thorough investigation into possible procedural failures and abuse of power, demanding that the voices of local residents be heard and respected.
As home insurance premiums soar across Ontario, an advocacy group is raising concerns over the lack of transparency in the insurance industry regarding the financial impacts of climate change. They fear governments are failing to protect homeowners by allowing insurance companies to quietly hike premiums as a result of an increasingly unpredictable climate, without disclosing exactly how they are determining the final numbers handed to customers on their bills.
The concern is that these hidden costs could push premiums beyond what many can afford, all while keeping the public in the dark about the real risks involved.
Brampton councillors have threatened legal action against Regeneration Outreach over issues they claim are linked to the services provided to unhoused and other vulnerable individuals in downtown Brampton.
The legal letter was sent without any consultation with the organization.
In a groundbreaking decision years in the making, the International Court of Justice has declared that climate inaction isn’t just reckless, it’s illegal. For the first time, the world’s highest court has confirmed that states have binding legal obligations to curb greenhouse gas emissions, including from fossil fuel production, or risk violating international law and facing consequences. The ruling could transform climate lawsuits from long-shot battles to powerful tools for justice.
The decision comes as the Ontario government has unveiled its latest energy plan which is continuing to push the province away from renewable energy, compromising vital emission reduction targets.
SafeHope Home in Durham Region is one of the few residential programs for human trafficking survivors in the country, and the only one to offer a long-term, wraparound support system. Thankfully, nobody was hurt in the fire, but now the organization must work tirelessly to find a new space and limit the disruption to these women who are trying to rebuild their lives after escaping one of the most heinous forms of exploitation.
The organization is currently fundraising to help support the purchase of a new location.
As fossil fuel giants flood screens with misleading net-zero claims, a UN special rapporteur is calling for urgent legal action to ban false advertising, end fossil fuel subsidies and phase out oil, gas and coal by 2030 after the industry’s six-decade campaign of climate denial and delay.
Canada’s federal government recently made changes to the Competition Act to fight greenwashing but relentless lobbying and resistance from the oil and gas sector have set Ottawa behind as the push to criminalize fossil fuel misinformation takes off elsewhere.
Jean-François and Jennifer Casu-Morin came to Caledon to raise their children surrounded by nature. They hoped to build a life on their farm in what was once celebrated as Ontario’s greenest town. They vividly remember Mayor Annette Groves personally assuring them during her 2022 election campaign that she would protect the environment and listen to local voices—promises that earned their trust.
That trust is in shambles after councillors, at the behest of Groves, fast-tracked a controversial plan to fill Swan Lake, which sits behind their home, with construction waste. The plan from the mayor, a favour to a powerful developer pushed through with no public consultation, has sparked a fierce fight over clean water, wildlife habitat and Caledon’s slowly vanishing identity as a green oasis.
Patrick Brown is pushing for the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to be added to Canada’s terror watch list. But the Brampton Mayor, who is constantly in the media speaking on issues outside his municipal jurisdiction, has remained silent on a key piece of the narrative surrounding the gang and its implication in Peel’s troubling organized crime landscape. Various sources have publicly stated that the Bishnoi gang is used as a “proxy” by the Indian government to target Sikhs in Canada.
Despite his close connections to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brown continues to ignore the connection between Modi’s government and the harassment of Sikhs in Canada.
Near the anniversary of two devastating “100-year storms” that turned Mississauga streets into rivers and homes into disaster zones last summer, the city is still digging out physically, financially and emotionally.
Despite pouring hundreds of millions into stormwater infrastructure and rolling out new relief programs, many residents remain flooded with frustration as local, provincial and federal support lags behind.
After his son was attacked at school, Anwar Knight says the Peel District School Board lied to him and attempted to cover up the incident. The experience led him to launch Hold Schools Accountable, an effort to reform the Education Act and ensure no parents are forced to deal with what he and his family had to go through.
A coalition of nine First Nations is taking Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, challenging Bills 5 and C-5 on constitutional grounds. They argue these laws concentrate sweeping powers in the Cabinet, bypass Indigenous consultation and weaken environmental protections on traditional lands, infringing on their rights and sovereignty.
Participating First Nations seek to halt enforcement of the new laws until the courts review their constitutionality.
With shrinking reserves, growing deficits and declining enrolment the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board has been placed under provincial supervision after an independent review found without ministry assistance, the board was at “significant risk” of defaulting on its financial obligations.
The Opposition NDP say the supervision order will not solve the root cause of the issue—PC underfunding of the public education system.
Mayor Annette Groves is once again under fire from the very residents who helped elect her on promises to protect Caledon’s environment and give the community a voice in local development. This time, outrage has erupted over a motion she introduced to allow construction fill to be dumped into a rehabilitated gravel pit, now a groundwater-fed lake teeming with wildlife.
The proposal, pushed forward without public consultation, drew a crowd of furious residents who packed council chambers on July 8, mirroring the backlash from 2024 when Groves faced widespread criticism over sweeping planning changes she made without proper public input.
Kathy McDonald, who has fought for years to reform the Peel District School Board, raised concerns during the board’s budget meeting early this month, highlighting what she sees as a failure to adequately invest in initiatives, mandated by the province, to end systemic anti-Black racism still plaguing the PDSB.
She also blasted the lack of transparency and staffing cuts impacting the entire public education community.
Peel Region urgently requires smart, sustainable growth to address its housing needs, but progress is repeatedly being stalled by chaotic PC legislation and political maneuvering among local leaders.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and Caledon Mayor Annette Groves walked out of an earlier regional council meeting in protest.
Egregious cases of animal cruelty continue to be exposed across Ontario.
Advocates say the entire animal welfare system is broken, and next Saturday they will take to the streets in Niagara Falls to confront the increasingly disturbing treatment of animals across the province.
The PC government is taking its proposed new municipal accountability legislation on the road this month to gather feedback from elected officials, stakeholders and the public across Ontario.
During the first two hearings last week, committee members heard disturbing stories of a municipal government system that resembles the wild west.
As Peel endures its hottest year on record, haunted by memories of last summer’s devastating floods, local councillors confront a stark reality: despite ambitious plans and some progress, the region is drifting further from critical climate targets. Rising emissions driven by population growth, provincial policy setbacks and a contentious waste-to-energy plant have set Peel back in a race against time.
The legal heat is rising in Niagara Falls following the removal and arrest of three women who attended a council meeting to address proposed provincial legislation meant to hold elected officials more accountable when they commit assault.
The Women of Ontario Say No has taken legal action, warning the City and local police that the move was unlawful, while the Canadian Constitution Foundation is demanding that Niagara Falls Council’s ban on signs in public meetings be immediately rescinded.
Canada is cracking under the pressure of drought, parched fields, blistering heat and a food system on edge. In regions like Peel, where fertile soil once sustained generations, farmers now face sweltering summers and unpredictable storms.
A new UN-backed report highlights the dire future that prolonged droughts will create.
This isn’t just another hot summer—it’s a turning point.
Residents across the region are watching their back as organized criminal elements target Peel’s large South Asian community.
Police arrested 18 Brampton-based suspects accused of a range of criminal acts against South Asian-Canadians; while calls have mounted for federal action against organized crime allegedly tied to evidence of the Indian government’s efforts to silence Sikhs across the country.
After Niagara Falls residents were twice denied an opportunity to address a proposed new provincial law, they will get their chance at a public meeting Friday. A women’s rights group was shut down when attempting to delegate on Bill 9, which aims to create tighter accountability rules for municipal council members, including those who are charged with assault.
Local officials claim that because Councillor Mike Strange is currently facing an intimate partner violence assault charge, the new rules being considered by Queen’s Park can not be addressed inside council chambers. Three women who wanted to voice their views were arrested after Mayor Jim Diodati refused to let them express themselves.
Despite City Hall’s poor finances, Mayor Patrick Brown and his fellow Brampton council members gave themselves a lavish golden parachute in the form of a taxpayer funded severance package unlike anything employees in Ontario are entitled to under provincial legislation. Even if elected members choose to step down or retire, they will still receive a publicly funded lump sum of money, under the controversial decision recently made quietly by the city’s council, without any public debate.
Amid a blazing heatwave, a group of GTA residents took a journey across Toronto’s leading renewable energy sites, proving that progress is possible even when government support falters.
From historic community wind turbines to cutting-edge school solar panels and innovative geothermal systems, the tour showcased how local action is shaping Ontario’s clean energy future.
Brampton councillors greenlit the expansion of the Residential Rental Licensing program for three years in Ward 2/8, with a plan to hire more property standards officers for stricter enforcement, while frustration mounts among landlords who have questioned the move since its launch last year.
Mayor Patrick Brown’s shortsighted financial strategy, freezing revenue and delaying key projects, is starting to have a serious impact on Brampton’s future. A recent report—which councillors refused to address—highlights a $180 million shortfall to keep key assets in working order. The City currently has no way to pay for the growing gap.
The province faces intensifying climate extremes—from record-breaking heat waves and devastating wildfires to unprecedented flooding—but the provincial government’s latest budget paints a troubling picture.
Despite increasingly grim warnings and growing public demand for environmental protection, funding for emergency preparedness and conservation is being slashed, while billions are poured into highway expansions for more sprawl and worsening emissions. The PC government has yet to articulate a clear vision for Ontario’s future.
You wouldn’t know Canada is burning, if listening to our politicians.
Three sweeping bills, rushed through legislatures in Ontario, British Columbia and Ottawa, are dismantling decades of environmental oversight in the name of “nation-building”. Critics warn this fast-tracking frenzy is an egregious abuse of Indigenous rights and territorial sovereignty. It could also seal the fate of future generations who will suffer the consequences of unthinkable ecological and environmental degradation.
These harms, they point out, are being carried out by so-called leaders who want to redefine the limits of democracy, so special interests don’t have to worry about the legal tools and political will that should help us fight the climate crisis.
The new legislation is meant to create mechanisms to remove elected officials for “serious contraventions” of local codes of conduct. But some municipal elected officials fear the process could be abused to remove councillors with dissenting views to the majority of council.
In a swift move framed as a response to an “economic war” with the U.S., Ontario’s government fast-tracked Bill 5, giving Doug Ford’s cabinet sweeping powers to create Special Economic Zones (SEZs)—a scheme planned long before trade tensions emerged. Critics warn this risky strategy sidelines Indigenous voices, weakens environmental protections, and echoes failed SEZ experiments worldwide. Many economists are also skeptical.
A new awareness campaign by the organization on the frontline of the cyber-fight to protect young people puts you in the shoes of a teenager facing online sextortion, a crime that is increasing at an ‘astronomical’ rate across North America.
“Bring Skye back.”
The chant rang out outside Gordon Graydon Senior Public School earlier this month after students walked out of their classrooms to protest the looming departure of a popular principal, Skye Bowen. Many feel she had finally begun to address systemic issues among the school’s diverse student body that had gone ignored for years.
In 2023 Councillor Gurpartap Singh Toor and another person flew to Detroit on two airline tickets totalling $2,156.74 for a three-day conference that his “community advisor” also attended. Along with another Brampton staff member who was on the trip, they were supposed to obtain information to help revive the struggling city centre and turn it into an innovation district.
There is not much to show for what they accomplished, other than spending Brampton taxpayer money on things such as pricey food, a 60 percent tip on an Uber fare and expensive hotel stays. This is the first in a series of articles The Pointer is publishing on the frequent trips staff and council members have taken around the world since Patrick Brown became mayor.
On Tuesday, Niagara police were called to council chambers by City staff after mayor Jim Diodati refused to let a council meeting continue. The issue? A small group of women were holding signs that read: “The Women of Ontario Say No”. They were removed and arrested.
They had gathered in support of stronger Ontario laws to hold local elected officials accountable when they are charged with assault. Niagara Falls Councillor Mike Strange is currently facing an assault charge in an alleged intimate partner violence case.
As wildlife populations crash globally, Ontario’s new Bill 17 legalizes what conservationists call ‘bird death traps’ by stripping away vital bird-friendly building protections. Marketed as a way to speed up residential development, the law removes municipal authority to enforce standards that save millions of migratory birds each year from deadly window collisions.
Advocates warn these changes prioritize developer profits over nature, undoing decades of progress and threatening Ontario’s climate goals.
In total, 18 individuals linked to a Brampton-based criminal entity responsible for multiple violent extortions, staged collisions to claim fraudulent insurance payouts and crimes across the towing industry were arrested by police.
The operation unfolded as B.C.'s David Eby called on Ottawa to list the Bishnoi group, an organized Indian criminal network that has reportedly claimed to have targeted the South Asian community in Canada, as a terrorist organization.
Political leaders usually pursue policies permissible among the majority of electors. Doug Ford’s Bill 5 is born from a belief that, above all else, most Ontarians prioritize their material needs.
A new movie delves into the driving contemporary psychology of the consumer mind. It offers clues about what motivates politics today, more than ever before.
Critics are concerned that Prime Minister Mark Carney is stepping back from the foreign policy of his predecessor—Justin Trudeau drew a clear line which he said was crossed by the BJP government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who Carney invited to the G7 Summit in Alberta this coming week, despite backlash from Sikh Canadians calling it a “betrayal of Canadian values”. A U.S. indictment includes detailed evidence linking Modi’s government to the assassination of Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
