Photo credit: Steven Evans
In late July, a court decision in Ontario upheld the province?s claim to sweeping powers to redevelop Ontario Place, a provincial site

on Toronto?s waterfront originally designed by architect Eberhard Zeidler with landscape architect Michael Hough. The court?s decision underscores how the current provincial government has put itself above the law, particularly with regard to heritage matters.
Ontario Place Protectors? case contended that the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act (ROPA), part of Bill 154, is unconstitutional in immunizing the Province from civil liability related to their work at Ontario Place. It also contends that, in declaring Ontario Place to be exempt from the Environmental Assessment Act, the Ontario Heritage Act, and the City of Toronto?s noise bylaws, the Province has violated the doctrine of public trust?the principle that the site ultimately belongs to the people of Ontario, and is held in trust by the Government of Ontario. While immunity clauses are not uncommon, Ontario Place Protectors argued that the one in ROPA is particularly extreme. The clause states, in part, that ?no costs, compensation or damages, including for loss of revenues or loss of profit, are owing or payable to any person and no remedy, including but not limited to a remedy in contract, restitution, tort, misfeasance, bad faith, trust or fiduciary obligation, any equitable remedy or any remedy under any statute, is available to any person in connection with a...