{"id":509269,"date":"2026-03-02T10:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/509269\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:39:09","slug":"writing-bylaws-requires-more-careful-consideration-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/509269\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing bylaws requires more careful consideration \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winnipeg City Hall has seen few instances of poetic justice more profound than a recent decision by a city councillor to withdraw a proposed bylaw to ban \u201cnuisance\u201d protests after being overwhelmed by a citizen protest opposed to his plans.<\/p>\n

It was not surprising that Coun. Evan Duncan\u2019s proposal to ban certain kinds of protests in certain locations of the city failed, although it was difficult to say for sure that it was always doomed. In these fractious times, where elected officials are frequently confronted by \u201cif-you\u2019re-not-with-me-you\u2019re-against-me\u201d ultimatums, it was impossible to be sure city council would not have been possessed by the same poor judgment when asked to vote on the bylaw.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, it never got that far.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Ruth
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n

Winnipeg Coun. Evan Duncan<\/p>\n

After hundreds of citizens registered to speak to the proposal at council, and a peaceful protest in the city hall courtyard, Duncan withdrew the bylaw. The councillor for Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood claimed he was standing down the proposed bylaw because of widespread \u201cmisinformation\u201d about what he was trying to accomplish.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no point in time was it ever my intention to ban peaceful protests,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n

Duncan\u2019s proposed bylaw was many things. Naively conceived, practically impaired and \u2014 in all likelihood \u2014 constitutionally illegal. But one thing it was not was misunderstood.<\/p>\n

Duncan\u2019s proposal would have banned what he termed \u201cnuisance\u201d demonstrations from a buffer zone of 100 metres around public buildings \u2014 schools, libraries, health-care facilities \u2014 any place of worship and even cemeteries. He defined \u201cnuisance\u201d demonstrations as \u201cany in-person protest or demonstration\u201d that involves \u201cthe expression by any means \u2026 of objection or disapproval towards an idea, action, person or group based on or related to any specific characteristics.\u201d Or any event that \u201cobstructed pedestrians or motor vehicles\u201d without obtaining the appropriate permits.<\/p>\n

If you take the bylaw at its literal word, it would have banned most protests \u2014 which all involve some act of disapproval towards an idea, person or group \u2014 or severely limited the locations in the city where the protests could be conducted.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

Anyone with a speck of imagination would have understood the obvious overreach involved. Drafters of rules have a responsibility to look at impacts beyond reaching their own ends \u2014 clearly, Duncan did not.<\/p>\n

We all have a right to protest, and those who are not protesting have a right to be protected from physical threat, property damage or any other actions that would be considered criminal in nature. There are already several legal tools available, including the Criminal Code, to deal with protests that graduate into a public threat. What citizens of a democracy do not have is the right to be free of the nuisance caused by a protest. Nuisance is not just a collateral effect; it is really the point of protest.<\/p>\n

Duncan never expressly described his motivation for introducing the bylaw. Last fall, he claimed he and his office staff received \u201can influx of calls when (a protest is) taking place, and residents are frustrated that no action\u2019s being taken.\u201d However, it\u2019s not a stretch to think that some of Duncan\u2019s concerns were related to pro-Palestine protests that have become frequent in Winnipeg, as they have in cities around the world.<\/p>\n

Duncan did have some support on council. Mayor Scott Gillingham acknowledged that limiting the number and scope of protests was a good idea because of the cost of the additional police resources required to provide security.<\/p>\n

It is, perhaps, too much to have Duncan, Gillingham and others on council who supported a ban on \u201cnuisance\u201d protests admit this was a bad idea from the start. It is gratifying, however, that protesters created just enough nuisance to convince councillors to do the right thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winnipeg City Hall has seen few instances of poetic justice more profound than a recent decision by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-509269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}