WATERLOO — Fear of harassment with limited support for the assertion isn't a good enough reason to keep the names of those fighting a proposed Muslim centre on Erbsville Road confidential.

In a decision handed down Feb. 26, the Ontario Municipal Board ordered the Waterloo West Community Association (WWCA) to provide a complete list of the names and addresses of its current and former members to the other parties in the matter, which is set to go to hearing April 24.

The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) is anxious to have a decision on the appeal of a City of Waterloo bylaw passed last year that would enable it to use the existing building at 510 Erbsville Rd. for spiritual purposes. The Muslim Association of Canada also plans to redevelop the property and build a proper mosque in the next five to 10 years.

The community association hired a lawyer and appealed the city's decision, citing concerns with the smaller spiritual use of the building, as well as future expansion.

The Muslim association takes the position that in order to meet the challenge and respond to assertions of negative impact, it needs to know who the members of the community association are and where the property of each member is located. It filed a motion requesting the information at a pre-hearing back in January after repeated attempts to attain a complete list of names and addresses were refused.

An affidavit from a land-use planner with Wood Bull LLP, the firm representing the appellants, cited the community association's director Hope Hon Yang, who advised her "many of the members are fearful of harassment as a result of their objection to this proposal."

The OMB ruled that the Muslim association had "met the test of requesting the information" and that the "affidavit contained nothing to support the claim of fear of harassment."

Community association members said they'd been followed by an individual who was recording them canvassing door-to-door last summer, however that was the limit of support for the assertion, the board noted.

"The board does not find this explanation for withholding the membership information in WWCA to be persuasive," the decision reads.

"We are in an era where mobile phones with visual and audio recording capability are both commonplace and commonly used. The canvassers were recorded going along the public right-of-way."

"It strains the board's credulity to suggest that the canvassers had an expectation of privacy … while undertaking their canvassing to obtain additional support of their opposition to the bylaw."

The board also noted that members of the gallery at the pre-hearing, sitting on opposite sides of the room, had mobile phones out to record proceedings.

"The board dismisses the assertion of a fear of harassment as a reason to withhold the member information being sought by the MAC or to encumber that production in any way," the decision reads.

"The board agrees that reasonable need for (the Muslim association) to be able to meet the opposing case in these proceedings demands the production of membership information of the WWCA ..."

The hearing will commence April 24 at 10 a.m. in Waterloo council chambers, 100 Regina St. S. Four days have been set aside.

Waterloo Chronicle

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