Doug Ford blasts ruling blocking 40 Kitchener encampment residents
Doug Ford said Friday that Justice Michael Gibson’s ruling blocking Waterloo Region from clearing a Kitchener encampment was “the most ridiculous ruling I’ve ever seen.” The Ontario premier said the region should be able to move the campers from the downtown gravel lot.
The decision from Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice came Thursday in an 88-page ruling that found it unconstitutional for the regional government to evict homeless people from the site. About 40 people are living there in tents and shanties.
Justice Michael Gibson ruling
Gibson’s ruling stopped the region from using its bylaw to remove and relocate the encampment residents. The judge wrote that the site is “the only remaining safety valve” for the region’s homeless people amid a severe shortage of shelter beds, and that the people there are “rights bearers no less entitled than other Canadian Citizens to the full benefits and protections of the Charter.”
The site sits near the location of a planned central transit hub in downtown Kitchener. Waterloo Region has said the property will be used for storing construction vehicles while the hub is built and later will become a parking lot.
Doug Ford in Sault Ste. Marie
Ford sharpened his criticism during remarks on Friday, saying, “I wish they’d show up in this judge’s backyard and set up camp.” He also said, “He comes out with this cockamamie idea that they’re … going to hold up transit, so for what, 30 people, they’re going to hold up millions and millions of riders.”
He later told reporters in Sault Ste. Marie, “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. You can’t move them on.” Ford also said, “We’ll give them shelter and take care of these folks, but the judge is saying that we’ve got to hold up projects and everything.”
Kitchener encampment since 2021
The encampment has been a flashpoint since 2021, when the first residents set up camp there. Waterloo Region tried for several years to clear the site, and courts denied permission in 2023. Officials later provided toilet facilities and waste disposal services at the site.
Ford said he would help the residents, but he did not lay out how that would work. For now, the ruling leaves the region unable to clear the lot while the legal finding against its removal stands.
