​Dear City of Cambridge (CC: Region of Waterloo):

​I "Rescind" Nothing:
​Check your facts
My post 23/09/25
​cambridge Council Meeting ponderings
In the September 23, 2025, City of Cambridge meeting, so many moments felt akin to something from "The Twilight Zone" or "Saturday Night Live". What should have been a serious discussion about accountability and human impact instead played out as a strange mix of denial, deflection, and scripted absurdity. Watching it, at times I could hardly tell whether to laugh, cry, or question reality itself.

This should have been an opportunity to move forward constructively—to rebuild trust, acknowledge harm, and chart a more humane path—but that moment was lost, that chance denied. Why?
What this says of our own lacking humanity really frightens me...
​We should probably talk about this.
City of Cambridge initiating Encampment Evictions *During Extreme Heat Wave*

Pointless order

I have never witnessed so many, in my view, unnecessary points of order called in any council meeting—at least among those I have observed. This stood out significantly. Admittedly, my observations of City of Cambridge council meetings are somewhat infrequent, but the repeated interruptions during delegate presentations were hard to overlook.
​These interjections cut into an important opportunity for community members to engage and offer their input and insights by delegating directly to council on the motion. The interruptions were each time expressed as justified by framing the delegates comments to be straying “off topic,” yet, respectfully, I disagree that they at all were to begin with. From my perspective, the information being shared was highly relevant to the motion under consideration. Moreover, the delegates’ tones and demeanors appeared to remain well within the expected conduct for addressing council, at least as I understand it to be.

yes, let's ​"set the record straight "​​

I witnessed the destruction of some of these peoples homes and possessions myself. To at all deny these occurrences is not only misleading—it’s an erasure of people’s lived reality and the added traumas as are being inflicted by these municipally led actions.
The Political Distractions: Procedural By-laws Cambridge (& Cambridge Council Meeting September 2, 2025)

False Narratives?

That tone of distortion and avoidance carried on into the discussion itself—most clearly in the refusal of the Mayor, Council, and City Staff to pursue further situational inquiry - this evidenced by their decision not to approve a motion requesting a staff report on these matters.
The City itself provided no clear or verifiable evidence to resolve, what it called, "the core question" of whether these evictions occurred, while denying they did. In contrast, community members offered multiple forms of documentation, videos, photos, and first-hand witness statements, all of these indicating that they, in fact, did happen.

Instead, in this meeting many municipal actors opted to quite openly cast doubt on the credibility of others, publicly implying that alternative information sources—and the details "they'd" presented—were unreliable or inaccurate. This doubt extended, logically I'd assume, to both to myself and the other witnesses who provided testimony about these events.

In The NEws: 

LETTER: Blaming encampments won’t solve Cambridge’s housing crsis - Cambridge Today - September 26, 2025

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The Advocate is also concerned about the characterization, repeated during the council meeting, that she was provided misinformation about encampment evictions that were proposed to take place during a heatwave.

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​​​This dismissal is particularly troubling given that many of those raising concerns about the City’s approach in these specific situations are active contributors to our local Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, offering their daily efforts, knowledge, lived experience, and expertise to shape our community’s housing response. Through the PECH approach, the Region has brought together people, ideas, and resources in a truly unique way.  These initiatives represent the community’s effort to together shape a better path forward.
​

Breakdown of Council & Staff Discussion
September 23, 2024 Cambridge Council Meeting

"I understand there are some co-creators that are quite upset about the bylaw and how that was rolled out, and so I wonder if you could speak to what is being done to repair some of those relationships or what we might be able to do to help foster that repair as well?" 
Regional Councillor Chantal Huinink during the PECH Update -Community & Health Services Committee - May 6, 2025

Upper Tier - Region of Waterloo

Housing SErvices Managers

The broader decisions shaping our local housing approach are determined by vote at Regional Council. These decisions then guide staff, who in turn provide follow-up information through various reports and updates. The regional table that makes these decisions is itself composed of elected representatives from each city and township within the region.

Cambridge is represented at this table by two separately elected councillors—Councillor Craig and Councillor Wolf—and by Mayor Liggett, who holds a seat by virtue of her elected role as the City’s head of council. This means that three of the seats around the regional horseshoe are held by Cambridge representatives, ensuring that the City’s perspective is reflected in regional decision-making.
Yet what happens when those decisions are not upheld outside the specific regional roles of participating members? One would hope that—even when not in the majority guiding a particular outcome—those who held a direct vote at the upper-tier level would still respect and act in accordance with those outcomes when making related decisions within their own (lower-tier) jurisdictions. I’m unsure whether this is formally required under any regulation, but it seems, at the very least, a moral obligation for anyone elected to public office through a democratic system, and so taasked to uphold the integrity of the collective decisions made on behalf of our community.
While we may not always agree with how the decisions fall, our elected representatives respecting the democratic process and working within it remains essential if we’re to move forward constructively.

Lower Tier : City of Cambridge

City of Cambridge - Policy points

This is a non-exhaustive list, and other applicable bylaws may exist beyond those noted here.
​
  • By-law No. 162.10 Being a by-law of the Corporation of the City of Cambridge to provide for the use, regulation, protection and government of the parks of the City of Cambridge

theoretically Intended Topic/point coverage
(currently unexpanded trains of thought I may or may not get to + points in draft)


I need a better title here, but for now this is it: 

​ By Mayor Liggett:  Local current shelter capacity data - Inaccurate​ - Report type/source??????
  • ​Accurate information - re: local shelter capacities vs volume of need
    • Supply vs Demand
      • Shelter bed counts 
      • PIT Counts

​By Councillor Devine: 
  • Which "lady that’s written this letter"? In fairness, there were a few of "us".
    • "...we need to do a little bit of research to find out where these people are from, when they're coming, with the letters and the information OK, because a lot of these, a lot of these people are just, if that's what they believe in, they're going to go and bang the drum. So I really do think we have to be careful."
​​
By Councillor Cooper: 
  • ​Which report and is this publicly accessible? I'd love to read it. 
    • ​"Council to be updated with the very significant ramifications of this legally, and we had that report today. It was actually 55 pages"

By Councillor Schwery: 
  • ​"​I push for encampment removals in my ward, but displacement alone is not a solution."
  • "This motion is asking staff to write a report just to confirm we aren't evicting people during extreme heat or cold are baseless because we don't. And it will burden our bylaw services which are already stretched beyond the brim."​​

Lower Tier : City of Cambridge

  • The City of Cambridge holds jurisdiction over land and property use within its boundaries, but this authority applies largely to publicly owned assets—not to privately owned properties. Private ownership is primarily governed by a separate set of regulations and legal frameworks. The current discussions are focused specifically on public assets held by the municipality and under its purview, not on the privately owned properties of residents or businesses. 
Bylaws: 
  • Specifically related to property use - City level
    • Ability to make use of other bylaws to mitigate the use of OTHER types of property though less directly - IE: Property Standards

Other "nickels"in this "JAR": ​