Before anything else, ask yourself this:

Are you okay with a City that punishes its own people for speaking up?

Please donate. Please share. And please keep reading — because the City of Peterborough is trying to teach a lesson. And that lesson is meant for YOU.

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The short story:

Mayor Leal overrode a majority of City Council and rushed through a backroom deal project in 20 days using new Strong Mayor powers, based on funding that didn’t exist. When a neighbourhood group asked if this was even legal — the only question the Strong Mayor legislation allows — the City responded by pricing them out of court, threatening their chair with personal ruin, and blocking the case from ever being heard. Even after $20 million in federal funding materialized, the City and Brock Mission chose not to build housing — but to make an example of the neighbours who dared to ask and me, their chair, Sarah McNeilly, personally. All for $22,500.

All for the sake of sending YOU a message: speak up, and you will pay.

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Here’s where you come in:

My neighbours and I are $15,000 short, with only 60 days to pay the $22,500 settlement the City and Brock Mission have demanded.

If we don’t pay in time, they can come back for more — and I, Sarah McNeilly, will be on the hook personally.

Please, help us close the gap. Help us prove that in Peterborough, people who speak up are not left to stand alone.

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“Do not obey in advance.”

Historian Timothy Snyder uses that phrase to caution against the moment democracy begins to fail — when citizens silence themselves and obey before any authority even asks.

That’s precisely the moment Northcrest Neighbours for Fair Process (NNFP) refused.

When Mayor Jeff Leal used his new “Strong Mayor” powers to over-ride a strong City Council majority to fast-track a controversial development — that was decided behind closed doors and based on funding misinformation — my neighbours and I didn’t quietly accept it.

We didn’t listen when our own Northcrest Ward Councillors told us there was nothing we could do — that the development was a “done deal.”

We didn’t assume speaking up was pointless.

We didn’t tell ourselves: “This is just how things work now.”

We did not obey in advance.

And that’s exactly why the response from Mayor Jeff Leal and the City of Peterborough has been so aggressive.

Because obedience — especially anticipated obedience — is how power goes unchecked. And when people stop asking questions out of fear of consequences, democracy quietly erodes.

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NNFP asked a question.

And because the Province built court immunity directly into its Strong Mayor legislation, there was only one question citizens were legally allowed to ask:

Whether Mayor Jeff Leal had the legal authority to do what he did — to override a clear majority of City Council, silence debate, and rush through a major transitional housing development in only twenty days without meaningful public process.

That question was not about being “for” or “against” housing.

It was about process.

About whether extraordinary powers — brand-new powers that concentrate decision-making in the hands of one man: Jeff Leal — are subject to any real checks and balances at all.

In a functioning democracy, that question should have been answered openly — by City Hall, by Council, or by the courts.

Instead, the City chose a different response: to shut the question down by making the act of asking dangerous.

Through aggressive legal tactics, the City made it clear that continuing to question its actions would come at a steep financial cost for NNFP and for me, Sarah McNeilly, personally as chair of the neighbourhood organization.

And when Brock Mission announced they had received a $20 million conditional offer from the CMHC to build the project, my neighbours and I tried to step down and drop the case to 'uncomplicate' their access to those funds.

Instead, Brock Mission and the City chose escalation, demanding the neighbourhood group —and I, Sarah McNeilly, personally — pay a large settlement just to walk away.

Not because they need the money.

But because they're sending a message: This is what happens when you do not obey in advance.

My neighbours and I are the example. And now the City is waiting to see whether that example works.

Whether everyday people like you look at what’s happened here and think:

“I’ll never speak up.”

Or whether you will respond with a message of your own.

Your donation today sends the City a message back:

• You don’t get to use our tax dollars to crush one of our own.

• You don’t get to rule by intimidation and decree.

• You don’t get to use fear to teach a civic lesson.

Please, if you believe democracy depends on people refusing to obey in advance, DONATE NOW. And please share this widely.

Because the City’s lesson only sticks if no one sends one back.

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NNFP was never opposed to transitional housing.

We were opposed to being told that the matter had already been decided and that our voices—or the voices of the women who already live, work, and shelter on the property at Cameron House—would not be included in the conversation. We were opposed to the disrespect, the deceit, and the breakneck speed at which the project was being rammed through.

In just twenty days — from first notice to final vote — the Mayor invoked his brand-new Strong Mayor powers, waived normal planning regulations, limited public debate, overrode a clear majority of City Council, and rushed through zoning changes for a major development that was decided in advance behind closed doors and based on funding that never existed in the first place.

Twenty days.

For a project of this scale.

With 7 City Councillors voting AGAINST it.

And no meaningful opportunity for public input.

Please donate. Please share.

Your donation tells the City that intimidation is not governance, and that residents who speak up will not stand alone.

The City of Peterborough is sending a message. Send yours back.

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The long story (Here's how it unfolded):

(*please click underlined text for hyperlinked sources)

— February 2025

At Brock Mission's request, Mayor Jeff Leal invokes Strong Mayor powers to rezone 738 Chemong Road and exempt the project from normal site-plan controls, fast-tracking a six-storey, 52-unit transitional housing project proposed by Brock Mission.

After the Open House—held only four days before the vote—where residents and City Councillors alike first learned project details, Councillor LaChica calls the project a backroom deal.

The City Council meeting descends into procedural chaos. A bylaw is changed without notification moments before the meeting, delegations are interrupted, and City Councillors are prevented from debating the use of Strong Mayor powers themselves.

Despite a strong majority of City Council voting against the project — including the two co-chairs of the homelessness portfolio — the Mayor’s decision overrides them.

The bylaws for re-zoning and waiving site plan controls pass with votes from only three other councillors—Garry Baldwin, Lesley Parnell, and Kevin Duguay—voting in favour alongside the Mayor, and the other seven Councillors voting against it.

Family lawyer and former councillor Ann Farquharson says project is a threat to women at Cameron House women’s shelter, saying the process has “done away with the safety and security” of the vulnerable residents it serves.

— March 2025

MPP Dave Smith publicly refutes funding claims made by Brock Mission board member and "project lead," Alan Wilson, that the Chemong Road project has secured $2 million per year in annual provincial operating funding, confirming that no funding commitment ever existed.

Fourcast Executive Director and HART Hub lead applicant, Donna Rogers, reveals that the Brock Mission is not part of the HART Hub application, despite repeated public claims to the contrary. The project is later confirmed to be ineligible for HART Hub funding, and was never a participant in the application process.

These funding misrepresentations had been relied upon by the Mayor in his Strong Mayor Directive to justify urgency and the bypassing of normal planning process.

Residents formally create Northcrest Neighbours for Fair Process (NNFP) to seek accountability for how the decision had been made. Under normal circumstances, residents would have appealed the planning decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT). However, recent provincial changes eliminated that right for citizens meaning the only way to appeal the decision was through a court challenge.

— April 2025

With no access to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), NNFP retained legal counsel and prepare an application for judicial review in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Under the Province’s Strong Mayors Building Homes Act , mayoral decisions are largely shielded from challenge on their merits. This statutory immunity means that residents cannot appeal whether a Strong Mayor decision is good or fair policy.

The only question available for NNFP to ask the Court was whether the Mayor had lawfully exercised those powers — that is, whether the decision fell within the scope of authority granted by the Province and whether statutory processes were followed.

NNFP’s application was therefore limited to testing the legitimacy of the Mayor’s use of Strong Mayor powers, including whether the project qualified as “housing” under the regulations and whether the Planning Act was complied with, notably the requirement that the statutory public Open House be held at least seven days before the public meeting (Planning Act, Part V, s.14).

During this period, Mayor Leal issued a further Strong Mayor Directive declaring that Strong Mayor powers still applied to the Brock Mission bylaws and directing City staff — rather than Council — to conduct and control the City’s legal response to NNFP’s court challenge.

NNFP incorporated solely to meet their law firm's policy and legal requirements, with Chair Sarah McNeilly named as the sole director.

— Summer 2025 (May-September)

With NNFP’s judicial review application formally filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and served on the City of Peterborough, a first hearing is scheduled for early June.

Less than two weeks before that hearing, the City files a Security for Costs motion, demanding that NNFP pay $10,000 up front simply to proceed.

The City also indicates its intention to "pierce the corporate veil " — a legal mechanism designed to bypass a company's separate legal status to hold shareholders/owners — in this case, Sarah McNeilly — personally liable. NNFP launches a GoFundMe campaign to come up with the potential security costs.

Days later, fifteen mature trees are removed from the Chemong Road site with City approval, permanently altering the property while the legality of the zoning remains unresolved.

At the judicial review hearing, citing the sudden tree removal, NNFP expresses their intent to file an urgent motion seeking an injunction to prevent further irreversible work until the Court can rule on their application.

Due to the primacy of City’s ongoing security-for-costs motion and NNFP's motion for injunctive relief, the judicial review hearing is adjourned sine die — with no new date scheduled. The City pushes for the application to be heard during the next available time slot in the busy regional Court: February 2026.

NNFP fundraises to post the potential security for $10,000. The City escalates its demands, next seeking $20,000 in security for costs from NNFP and the corporation's Chair, Sarah McNeilly, personally.

Brock Mission and the City of Peterborough's Chief Building Official are added as a Respondents to the proceedings.

The City amends their motion for security for costs, now asking for $30,000 up front from NNFP and McNeilly personally — triple the original amount.

After numerous scheduling filings and hearings, Justice Edwards of the Ontario Superior Court, orders that the City's motion for security for costs and NNFP's motion for injunctive or interlocutory relief are scheduled to be heard together on an urgent basis on October 1, 2025 — instead of February 2026, as the City had continuously requested throughout the summer.

— October 2025

On October 1, 2025, all parties appear before the Ontario Superior Court. Due to time constraints, the Court hears only the City’s security-for-costs motion. NNFP’s injunction motion is not reached.

At that hearing, before a packed public gallery, Brock Mission announces in open court that it has received a conditional $20 million funding offer from CMHC — the first project funding ever publicly acknowledged since Brock Mission's earlier claims to $2 million in provincial operational funding and to being recipients of HART Hub funding had been proven false.

At the hearing, also before a packed public gallery, Justice Woodley tells all parties she is inclined to grant the City’s motion and that she does not believe reviewing the evidence will change her mind. She explicitly encourages the parties to settle outside of court before her decision is released.

As per the judge's wishes, NNFP immediately offers to settle by withdrawing its application with no costs to any party, expressly to "uncomplicate" Brock Mission’s access to their newly announced federal funding.

That offer goes unanswered for seven weeks — despite the fact that Brock Mission is obliged to repay the City's $250,000 if the project is not "shovel ready" by December 31, 2025.

—November 2025

Justice Woodley releases her written decision, confirming the position she had indicated to those in attendance of the hearing weeks earlier, and she orders NNFP to post security for costs of $30,000 within 30 days to continue with their challenge in court. NNFP was financially unable to do so. At this point, the legal challenge was effectively over.

Rather than allowing NNFP to withdraw its application following the Court’s ruling, the City and Brock Mission demand a separate $30,000 in costs as the price of ending the case. That demand requiring payment by both NNFP and its Chair, Sarah McNeilly, personally in a sixty day timeframe.

Lawyers for the City and Brock Mission also indicate that, if settlement is not reached by December 10, 2025, they would seek to pierce the corporate veil and pursue substantially higher costs — with the City seeking $40,000-$60,000 in costs Brock Mission seeking $20,000+HST — placing McNeilly’s personal assets at risk.

— December 2025

NNFP next attempts to resolve the matter for a lesser amount, including an offer of $17,000 — an amount made possible only after NNFP’s lawyer forgives their outstanding legal fees to help them reallocate their remaining funds toward settlement costs.

The City and Brock Mission reject this offer and make a joint counter-demand of $25,000, again to be paid by NNFP and Sarah McNeilly personally within 60 days.

With a looming December 10th deadline and the threat of up to $100,000 in further personal liability, NNFP makes a final offer of $20,000 to end the matter in full.

On December 9, 2025, the City and Brock Mission countered with $22,500, which NNFP accepted to prevent the Municipal government and Charitable organization from seeking up to $100,000 in court and protect NNFP's Chair, Sarah McNeilly, from financial harm.

The settlement concluded the case without its merits ever being heard.

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The Takeaway?

Mayor Leal used Strong Mayor powers to override City Council and rush through a massive backroom deal project — justified by funding claims that later proved false — in just 20 days. When neighbours asked the only question the law allows — was this even legal? — the City priced them out of court, threatened one citizen with personal financial ruin, and made sure the case would never be heard. Even after $20 million in federal funding materialized, the City and Brock Mission chose not to build housing — but to crush the people who asked how the decision was made. All for $22,500.

All for the sake of sending YOU a message: This is what happens when you do not obey in advance.

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What Happens Next Is Up to You

This is the moment Timothy Snyder warns about: when people watch what happens to someone who speaks up — and quietly decide they won’t be next.

That is the lesson the City of Peterborough is trying to teach here — they are sending a message:

Speak up, and you will pay. Stay quiet, and you’ll be safe.

But if people like you step forward — if neighbours, residents, and taxpayers say no — then the lesson changes.

Your donation today is a declaration that:

• You will not obey in advance.

• You will not let your tax dollars be used to crush one of your own.

• You will not allow fear to become a tool of municipal governance.

Please donate what you can today.

Please share this widely.

Please send the City a message of your own.

Because democracy doesn’t die all at once.

It dies when good people decide it’s safer not to act.

—

Sarah McNeilly

Chair, Northcrest Neighbours for Fair Process (NNFP)