LETTER: Tiny residents want referendum on municipal build

MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is a letter to the editor is in response to a story published titled, 'Tiny deflates referendum calls alongside Ombudsman commendation.'

Canada is a democratic country in which it is the right of the people to have the freedom to express their views and not be suppressed by it’s municipal government or councillors.

If Tiny councillors do not allow a referendum then the taxpayers are being denied their freedom of speech and expression to matters that pertain to them. Please see below the freedom of expression act below (from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms).

Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.

Similar provisions may be found in the (other) Canadian laws and international instruments binding on Canada.

"The protection of freedom of expression is premised upon fundamental principles and values that promote the search for and attainment of truth, participation in social and political decision-making and the opportunity for individual self-fulfillment through expression," one ruling states.

"Free expression is valued above all as being instrumental to democratic governance. The two other rationales for protecting freedom of expression — encouraging the search for truth through the open exchange of ideas, and fostering individual self-actualization, thus directly engaging individual human dignity — are also key values that animate (this section analysis)"

My husband and I are requesting that a referendum be held.

Teresa Czich

Tiny