President of the North Bay and District Labour Council, Henri Giroux, says the new proposed bylaw to control those can speak at city council is a serious blow to democracy. An update to the bylaw, which was referred to committee on Monday, proposes to do away with unregistered public presentations of up to five minutes.
A new rule is being suggested that would require anyone who wants to make a presentation to submit a written request to the clerk no later than noon on the day of council. Right now, if a citizen wants to go to the meeting and wait his or her turn to speak for 5 minutes, they can. But if the bylaw goes through, city staff will use their understanding of the bylaw language to pick and choose those who get to speak.
Giroux says as it stands, a representative of the North Bay Labour Council is not even allowed to speak about labour issues during municipal council meetings. He believes not many people are not aware of this. The fact that Labour cannot speak during the council meetings is undemocratic according to Giroux.
Giroux says that by placing limits and controls on the general public, city council will be silencing democracy. Giroux also added if this bylaw is changing, the risk of political favouritism will be present, plain and simple.
