2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (David Rider)
The line item on the Halton Hills council agenda seemed routine enough. Councillors were poised to look at proposed terms of reference for a document that would delve into how people in this growing town would be moving around in the decades to come. It’s the kind of document municipalities regularly put together to shape future roadways, bike lanes, stoplight placement and the like.
If some councillors were surprised to notice more residents showing up than usual for this particular session, they were stunned by what happened next. Constituents, including longtime neighbours, began accusing the council of laying the groundwork for a shadowy international plot. It was meant, they feared, to imprison residents within their neighbourhoods, using technology that would also enslave them in other ways.
“I found language (in the proposed terms of reference) that has the potential to open the door to 15-minute ‘smart’ cities,” a woman who has lived in Georgetown for more than a half-century told the August meeting. “If this document opens up the route to 15-minute cities, every single tower, every single connection to the wireless of that tower, will harm the people of Georgetown through 5G radiation poisoning, or electromagnetic radiation, and every tower will cause harm at every minute.” The crowd applauded.
(It’s worth noting here that Health Canada says, based on the available scientific evidence, .”) Other deputants stepped forward. They said Halton Hills risks falling prey to the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, facial-recognition technology and checkpoints to restrict their movements between the town’s scattered communities.
The 15-minute cities conspiracy theory had officially arrived in Halton Hills. Conspiratorial ruminations have jumped from online forums to local council meetings. It’s a situation that’s influencing proposals and debate over good-faith attempts to make communities less car reliant with more options for walking and biking under what’s known as the 15-minute city concept.
Many politicians say they’re bewildered. Some are frustrated. But others are lining up with residents and sharing their fears.
Warnings across social media channels and podcasts about a global plot to restrict freedom of movement — under the guise of measures to discourage car use, curb climate change and introduce “smart city” technologies — emerged in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. They’ve grown ever louder since. As the U.
S. under president-elect Donald Trump appears set to enter an era that mainstreams conspiracy theories about government intentions, unfounded fears over 15-minute cities are, on a much more local level, affecting the language some communities use to describe their new mobility options. Some people fear that backlash over imagined plots could begin to shape the communities themselves.
Jane Fogal, a Halton Hills councillor for 27 years, said she couldn’t believe the statements at the August meeting triggered by a preliminary planning document written by town staff that doesn’t even mention the — or recommend any specific changes to the town. “It came as a big surprise, to me, the level of paranoia and distrust of those of us who are councillors,” said Fogal. She said she knew some of those questioning the aims of council and town staff to be “completely reasonable people.
” “That anyone could believe that the municipal level of government that’s all about helping people — providing them with playgrounds, trails, ways to enjoy the entire town — that these people have been made to feel they can’t trust us, that we’re evil people who have a plan to contain them — it’s transformative, it’s unbelievable. “I believe that it was just Halton Hills’s turn to have a mobility master plan, that’s why it became an issue here, but I’m sure that idea of 15-minute neighbourhoods is bubbling up all over the country.” Even without communities explicitly trying to adopt a 15-minute city framework, councils have seen similar protests in other parts of the GTA, including Pickering and Aurora, other parts of Ontario from up to , and in other provinces.
Some right-wing groups affiliated with the convoy movement give residents , including Toronto’s efforts to . The Canadian Institute of Planners that “misinformation” about the concept “has resulted in alarming instances of hostile behaviour and threats toward planners and public servants, disruptive conduct in consultation meetings, and the need for law enforcement interventions.” The backlash is shaping how municipalities describe their efforts to make communities more bikeable and walkable, avoiding terms that could trigger protest, while resisting calls to reject any initiatives that offer people more non-vehicle options.
Efforts to curb suburban sprawl and make communities less car reliant have been largely embraced by cities around the world for decades. The planning institute notes that “most urban areas built prior to the overwhelming proliferation of cars have the structure of a 15-minute city.” Goals include convenience for residents, equity for people who can’t afford or don’t want a car, the health benefits of increased walking and biking, and carbon reduction benefits from reduced private vehicle use.
Prof. Carlos Moreno, a Paris-based urbanist, coined the “15-minute city” that called for cities to be reimagined around ecology, proximity to activities, community connections and citizen participation. Moreno told the New York Times in 2023 that conspiracy theorists quickly turned him from a researcher into an evil character like Adolf Hitler or Pol Pot.
“I have become, in one week, Public Enemy No. 1,” he said, adding it was unclear how to fight such unfounded allegations. “I’m not totally sure what is the best reaction — to respond, to not respond, to call a press conference, to write a press release,” he said.
Academics, he said, “are relatively alone.” Although the concept did find fans among some city leaders, , many people previously uninterested in urban planning soon came to see it not as about mobility choice, but as an attempt to limit vehicle use, paving the road toward a future ban on vehicles. At the Halton Hills meeting, Mayor Ann Lawlor joined Fogal and other council members trying to assure residents that the mobility plan terms of reference — a framework to launch public consultation to inform future proposals — were not part of a plot to enslave them.
But Coun. D’Arcy Keene questioned town staff’s use of the word “mobility” rather than “transportation” and told the crowd, to cheers: “This is just the beginning of the inevitable result — restrict people’s movement, take away their freedom of mobility.” Halton Hills Coun.
D’Arcy Keene objected to a town report on mobility options that did not stress the primacy of the privately owned automobile. Keene and Coun. Joseph Racinsky questioned town staff’s proposed bullet points to help frame consultation — that the mobility plan should “encourage alternative forms of transportation such as walking, cycling and public transit” and also “reduce dependency on passenger vehicles and increase the modal share of public transit and active transportation.
” Those aims, widely promoted by municipalities in recent decades, were a red flag to Keene, a first-term councillor and business owner. “Primacy of the privately owned automobile is the primary source of transportation for this community,” he told council. “That’s what is missing from this report and needs to be included.
” Racinsky convinced a majority of his colleagues to erase the goals of encouraging walking and cycling, and reducing dependency on private vehicles, arguing transportation priorities should come from residents and not town staff. The mayor voted with him, but said she had no doubt the final plan would include those goals. In an interview later, Keene applauded residents for questioning town staff and his council colleagues and for resisting efforts to impose an ideology he said is completely at odds with their semi-rural, car-based lifestyle.
“There are overall trends on a national and international level — to call it conspiracy theories is offensive,” he said. “Transglobal organizations — government organizations and NGOs, ‘gongos’ I call them — are constantly coming up with new ways to affect people’s lives that (Halton Hills residents) have no interest in hearing about.” Keene said he believes “the power of the unelected administrative state has grown exponentially in the last 20 years,” and questions why town staff want a new mobility plan at all.
He branded the proposed terms of reference “a complete minimization of the privately owned automobile as the primary source of transportation in our community. It’s clearly an anti-car report and it ignores the needs and desires of my constituents, and I’m extremely upset about it.” The town of Halton Hills said the mobility plan “isn’t a movement away from cars, but more about encouraging alternative transportation options” and “will be addressing all modes of travel from automobiles, to cycling, to walking, transit and shared mobility.
” Chris Mills, the town’s chief administrative officer, told the Star: “It’s unfortunate that the term ’15-minute cities’ has been so misunderstood, it has nothing to do with restricting people’s movements. “Basically, the concept is to construct communities with amenities that people could get to by walking or riding in 15 minutes if they choose to do so. The option to drive will always be there.
The more common term we use in Halton Hills is ‘complete communities’ or ‘compact form.’” As to Keene’s statement about “the unelected administrative state,” Mills added that “Over the past 20 years, town staff have increased to meet the expectations of the community and the standards set by council.” At Aurora council last year, a deputant was after a presentation that included dire warnings about the threat of 15-minute cities.
Edmonton council earlier this year took the unusual step of , adding that new plans “shall not restrict freedom of movement, association, and commerce in accordance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” A small group of protesters gathered in Edmonton in February last year to protest the 15-minute city. The city later addressed conspiracy thoeries in a bylaw.
An August meeting of city council in Brandon, Man. saw members of an overflow crowd accuse council members of . Carmen Celestini, a University of Waterloo researcher studying conspiracy theories, said online theorists linking benign efforts to improve health and convenience have mobilized a lot of regular people who, during pandemic isolation, retreated deep into their smartphones and online communities protesting lockdown measures.
“Most people think conspiracy theorists have the tinfoil hat, but a lot of them are upper or middle class. They’re well-educated,” she said. “If they already distrust government or feel disengaged, their voice isn’t there, these things can make sense to them, they don’t seem far-fetched.
But 15-minute cities are about livability — nothing ominous or evil.” Celestini added that “conspiracies are absolutely having an impact on politics at all levels, globally,” triggering baseless moral panics about critical race theory, “groomer” pedophile rings and prompting some politicians to vow to never engage with the World Economic Forum. Governments have a difficult task pushing back against conspiracy theories, Celestini said.
“Those who believe in conspiracies do not trust politicians nor do they trust legacy media, so any pronouncements from these groups will be understood as ‘trying to control’ or ‘lies,’” she said. “I do not think there is a concrete form of fighting back this tide, but whatever is done must be a global response, because the internet is borderless,” and so too are the conspiracies and fears. It’s been challenging to pinpoint the source of conspiracy theories.
Some people note that fighting efforts to reduce private vehicle use . Others point to intent on pitting Western nation citizens against each other. What is clear is that many residents deeply believe in the threat to their communities.
Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe said his city is “ground zero” for municipalities coping with conspiracy theories. Pickering council is, according to Mayor Kevin Ashe, “ground zero” for municipalities coping with conspiracy theories, “including the globalist agenda, space force police, geo-engineering with chemtrails — it’s a small minority of residents, but it’s here.” He blames Coun.
Lisa Robinson who, he said, “finds links to 15-minute cities and other like-minded thinking in all kinds of reports that have nothing to do with planning.” Robinson, a councillor for violating its code of conduct since her election in October 2022, said in an email that language promoting 15-minute cities “resembles a system of control rather than empowerment,” and pointed to surveillance and movement controls in China. “The pandemic exposed how governments can use fear to justify sweeping control, and it has made more people vigilant, recognizing that when only one side of the story is permitted, it’s often a red flag that the full truth is being concealed,” she said.
Ashe rejected the idea that encouraging alternatives to private vehicles use is in any way nefarious, but concedes that protests by Robinson and her followers are affecting the way the city describes such initiatives. “Our staff and councillors are hesitant to use that (15-minute city) terminology. We don’t want our council chambers filled with conspiracy theorists.
We don’t want our municipal agenda hijacked by the alt-right delegates. It’s unfortunate we have to couch our language,” Ashe said. “Hopefully it’s not changing policy,” in any communities, he added.
Back at the Halton Hills meeting, a resident warns council members that, while he welcomes assurances they are not trying to force UN sustainability goals onto the community, “You will not be able to scare the people of Georgetown, who see the weather acting normal on a daily basis.” Any attempt to sneak a reduction in carbon emissions into city plans, he added, will result “in the council being thrown out.” Fogal said later she believes a majority of her council colleagues are determined to give residents more ways to get around and enjoy the town even if it means more accusations and more tough meetings.
“I don’t want people to think we’re not going to do it because of this opposition. You’ve got to stick with your principles.”.
