Dear editor:

Democracy is drawing its last breath in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Already on life support following a series of egregious planning decisions by a municipal council that seemingly can’t or won’t hear the voices of town residents, it took a tailspin this week when council, in a closed-door session, voted to break with precedent and appoint Andrew Niven to its ranks.

By rights, former councillor Allan Bisback should have been asked to fill the seat vacated by Nick Ruller in September.

Bisback finished ninth in the 2022 NOTL municipal election, a mere handful of votes behind Maria Mavridis. With only one exception in recent times, when there has been a vacancy on council during its current term, it has turned to the ninth-place finisher in the past election to fill that seat.

Gary Zalepa, our lord mayor, is well aware of the precedent. It was followed when he was appointed to NOTL council in the 2000s to replace the late Bob Howse.

Appointing Bisback would have been democratic and justifiable.

There are good and valid reasons for previous councils to have set and followed the precedent of turning to the ninth-place finisher to bolster its ranks.

Merriam-Webster gives the definition of precedent as: “Something done or said that may serve as an example or rule to authorize or justify a subsequent act of the same or an analogous kind; or the convention established by such a precedent or by long practice.”

The fairness in word and deed that precedence implies and instills is also key to our system of common law.

According to the American Bar Association: Respect for precedents gives the law consistency and makes interpretations of the law more predictable — and less seemingly random.

In fairness to our current council, there is nothing in the Ontario Municipal Act that requires it to turn to the ninth-place finisher to fill a vacancy.

The act merely requires it to either: a) fill the vacancy by appointing a person who has consented to accept the office if appointed; or, b) require a byelection to be held to fill the vacancy in accordance with the Ontario Municipal Elections Act.

But, by not following the precedent established by previous councils — Niven did not run in the 2022 municipal election and finished eleventh in 2018 — it has, in my view, turned away from democracy and fairness.

And, it has yet to justify or explain the rationale for its decision.

Council has potentially also created an awkward situation for itself.

As chair of the NOTL Chamber of Commerce and director of marketing for a winery, Niven may well spend the next two years on council sitting on the sidelines because of an actual or perceived conflict of interest.

Terry Davis
NOTL