The City of Mississauga previously lost a court case against a resident who didn’t want to cut his grass
Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration; not a photograph of the reported event.
Yard maintenance is once again a human rights issue in Mississauga. An unnamed local man has launched a human rights complaint against the city, alleging discrimination on the basis of disability because neighbours want him to keep his yard tidy.
Mpulse first learned about this case when Mississauga resident George Batsakis and his daughter Tina appeared before Mississauga city council on September 9.
Batsakis told council about the problems he has with his neighbour’s yard, telling the committee the neighbour, “has not cut it [the grass] in 2 years.”
Batsakis, 79, an avid gardener himself, told council that as a result, he has to contend with “rats parading in the backyard,” eating his produce, damaging his plants and “now there’s even snakes.”
Batsakis told council that after 2 years with no resolution, he felt his only recourse was to appeal to council for a reduction on his property tax bill. While that appeal was denied, city councillors were sympathetic to his plight.
City Solicitor Graham Walsh told council that while the city is working to resolve the issue, the human rights complaint the resident has filed has “complicated onerous enforcement action.”
He said the city has offered solutions, such as removing the grass and replacing it with something that would not need to be cut, but that the case is still before the tribunal and nothing has been decided.
According to the current by-law, tall grass violations come with a $305 fine and a requirement to comply within 7 days. A failure to comply could lead to greater fines and the city showing up to cut the grass and then adding the bill to the resident’s property taxes.
This current human rights case is not the first time a Mississauga resident has challenged the city’s tall grass by-law. Earlier this year, Mississauga man Wolf Ruck won his case in Ontario Superior Court when the court ruled that the Mississauga by-law infringed on his Charter right to freedom of expression. Ruck’s “naturalized garden” had in the past been cut down by the city.
In response to the ruling, the city introduced and passed a new “Turfgrass and Prohibited Plant Species by-law” this spring. While it still requires owners or occupiers of a property to ensure that the height of their traditional turfgrass does not exceed 20cm, there are exemptions for naturalized gardens.
Depending on the outcome of the current case before the Human Rights Tribunal, there could be more changes to come for the by-law.
In the meantime, Walsh told Batsakis that “the law of neighbourly conduct” still applies and “the human rights matter does not stop [Batsakis]] from taking action against his neighbour civilly.”
