Georges Bédard

Georges Bédard (born c. 1946 in

2003 Ottawa election he returned to Ottawa's city council, replacing Madeleine Meilleur who had become a member of the provincial legislature. Meilleur endorsed Bédard's return to city council and he elected with 42% of the vote with his closest rival getting 27%.^{[citation needed}

]

He was re-elected in the

2006 Ottawa election with 47% of the vote to his closest, Bruce McConville, 45%, the narrowest margin of victory of any of the incumbent councillors. He lost the 2010 Ottawa election to Mathieu Fleury

.

Homelessness

In July, 2006 Bédard became vocal about the concentration of services offered to homeless people in Ottawa. Bédard has been critical of adding to the six shelters which are located in his Rideau-Vanier ward, arguing that concentrating homeless services in one spot ghettoizes the area and makes it harder for people to escape poverty and homelessness. City Council has passed Bédard's motion [2] on having an interim moratorium on creating any more special needs housing in Rideau-Vanier until zoning review is completed.^[3] The review resulted in new zoning rules that limited the number of shelters per ward, allowed shelters in other parts of the city where they were not allowed before, and prohibited shelters and social services from residential zones. .^[4] This meshed with Bédard's earlier study, which limited group homes to 10 persons or less and allowed them in all residential areas.

Bedard was also successful in preventing the opening of new nightclubs, bars and pubs in his ward, and has tried unsuccessfully to get some of the area's bus shelters removed, saying that drug dealers and panhandlers use them.^[5]

Anti-noise by-law

In February 2010, Bédard proposed a by-law to city council which would allow the city to fine people $300 for engaging "in loud, boisterous, threatening, abusive, insulting or indecent language" or becoming "a nuisance to the general public using the highway or to adjacent property owners". The proposed by-law is aimed specifically at the

unconstitutional. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association also opposed the proposed by-law.^[7]

References

^ "Crime an issue in 'the ward that never sleeps'". Ottawa Citizen. October 14, 2010. p. C4. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
^ Ottawa City Council
^ "New program to help homeless set to start within year". Ottawa Citizen. June 3, 2008. Archived from the original on July 25, 2009. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
^ Interim Control By-law Study
^ "Ottawa councilor calls for moratorium on downtown homeless services". CBC News. July 21, 2006. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
^ Joanne Chianello. "Ottawa's proposed noise bylaw under fire". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 2010-03-11. ^{[dead link]}
^ "CCLA criticizes Ottawa's proposed 'anti-swearing' by-law as unconstitutional". Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Archived from the original on 2010-05-03. Retrieved 2010-03-11.

External links

Preceded by Madeleine Meilleur	City councillors from Rideau-Vanier Ward 2003-2010	Succeeded by Mathieu Fleury
Preceded by Jules Morin	City councillors from By-St. George's Ward 1974-1980	Succeeded by Ward abolished. See Nancy Smith and Marc Laviolette

[1] "Crime an issue in 'the ward that never sleeps'". Ottawa Citizen. October 14, 2010. p. C4. Retrieved May 22, 2020.

[2] Ottawa City Council

[3] "New program to help homeless set to start within year". Ottawa Citizen. June 3, 2008. Archived from the original on July 25, 2009. Retrieved December 2, 2009.

[4] Interim Control By-law Study

[5] "Ottawa councilor calls for moratorium on downtown homeless services". CBC News. July 21, 2006. Retrieved December 2, 2009.

[6] Joanne Chianello. "Ottawa's proposed noise bylaw under fire". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 2010-03-11. ^{[dead link]}

[7] "CCLA criticizes Ottawa's proposed 'anti-swearing' by-law as unconstitutional". Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Archived from the original on 2010-05-03. Retrieved 2010-03-11.

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