HAMILTON, ON: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that lawyers funded by the Justice Centre have sent a notice of pending litigation to the Hamilton Police Service Board concerning police efforts to prevent a political conference from taking place in Hamilton.
Constitutional lawyers Hatim Kheir and Christopher Fleury represent the Dominion Society of Canada, which intended to hold its DomCon conference in Hamilton on August 29, 2026. The Society describes itself as a non-partisan advocacy group promoting Canadian identity, heritage, and nationalism. Its conference was to feature speakers addressing primarily immigration reform.
The notice states that Hamilton Police Service interfered with the Society’s constitutionally protected freedom of expression by publicly denouncing the conference, telling organizers to cancel it and leave the city, asking the public to identify possible venue bookings, and contacting potential venues to caution them against hosting the event.
The notice follows an August 28, 2026 warning letter to Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath and Hamilton Police Chief Frank Bergen. That letter warned that efforts to prevent the conference infringed freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Mayor Horwath had stated that City-owned venues would not be rented to the Society and had written to local businesses to discourage them from hosting the conference. Hamilton Police subsequently encouraged venues to consider the conference’s messaging when deciding whether to host it and asked the public to report possible bookings, despite identifying no crime in connection with the event.
The notice argues that suppressing expression because police consider it “divisive and exclusionary” is not a valid policing objective and is not authorized by law. The Society intends to seek damages under section 24(1) of the Charter, with the amount still to be determined.
The letter also requests preservation of all relevant evidence, including electronic communications, recordings, and records identifying personnel involved, and steps to prevent automatic deletion or overwriting.
Constitutional lawyer Hatim Kheir said, “The police cannot exclude political gatherings from a city simply because they disagree with their message.”
“Excluding lawful political discourse does not advance any legitimate police duties,” he added.
The Justice Centre is Canada’s leading civil liberties organization defending Charter rights and freedoms in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion. Founded in 2010, the Justice Centre funds lawyers across Canada, relies entirely on voluntary donations to carry out its mission, and issues official tax receipts to donors.
