Group of Ontario mayors call for use of notwithstanding clause on encampments

A dozen Ontario mayors are asking Premier Doug Ford to use the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to give authorities and police more power to break up homeless encampments and force more people into mandatory drug and mental-health treatment.The demand, made in a letter dated Thursday, was signed by Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall and Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, both of whom have championed the idea of mandatory treatment in recent weeks, as well as Mayor Paul Lefebvre of Sudbury and Mayor Drew Dilkens of Windsor. But absent are signatures from the mayors of the province’s largest cities: Toronto, Ottawa and Mississauga.