Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s push for plebiscite questions in the upcoming municipal election on public drug use and adding involuntary care beds has been condemned by opponents as an election ploy.
“I have all sorts of legal concerns looking at it. Especially when it comes to the municipality wanting to pass. But would it effectively be criminal law… Is Ken Sim telling us he doesn’t understand the constitutional division of powers that’s exclusively federal jurisdiction…? Even if they were to write a bylaw that prohibited it because they didn’t feel the government was doing enough to investigate, enforce, and prosecute it, that would still be unconstitutional and outside the city’s powers…”
