Ontario.

• Date: 22 March 2023
• Author: Khan, Tanzima

Ontario's Legislature resumed the first Fall Sitting period of the 1st Session of the 43rd Parliament on October 25, 2022.

Speaker's Ruling

On October 31, 2022, the Member for Scarborough--Guildwood (Mitzie Hunter) raised a question of privilege regarding comments made by the Minister of Education to the media and on his social media account. She asserted that the comments presupposed the passage of Bill 28, An Act to resolve labour disputes involving school board employees represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which was introduced earlier that day and was being considered by the House. MPP Hunter provided written notice along with copies of news articles, printouts of the Minister's social media accounts, and videos of the Minister's comments to the media. Specifically, MPP Hunter highlighted statements by the Minister stating that "the government is going to pass the Bill" and that "we will pass a law." The Government House Leader (Paul Calandra), the Official Opposition House Leader (Peggy Sattler), the Member for Ottawa South (John Fraser) and the Member for Guelph (Mike Schreiner) also provided comments.

On November 3, 2022, the Speaker, Ted Arnott delivered his ruling that while MPP Hunter correctly identified the issues as relating to contempt, he was not able to find that a prima facie case of contempt had been established. He noted that on a number of occasions, the Minister acknowledged that the Bill had not yet passed. The Minister used conditional language such as "would, if passed, keep kids learning in school" both in his brief comments after the Bill received First Reading and during his leadoff speech on the motion for Second Reading of the Bill. Additionally, the Speaker noted that in one of the Minister's tweets in question, the Minister included the following statement: "... we will have no other choice but to introduce legislation tomorrow, which will ensure that students remain in class to catch up on their learning". When taken as a whole, the tweet does acknowledge the necessary role of the Legislature.

Condolences

The House expressed its condolence on the passing of several former Members, including:

Jim Henderson, Member for the electoral districts of Humber and Etobicoke--Humber (May 2, 1985 to June 7, 1995)

Joe Dickson, Member for Ajax--Pickering (October 10, 2027 to June 6, 2018)

Gordon Irvin Miller, Member for the electoral districts of Haldimand--Norfolk and Norfolk (September 18, 1975 to September 5, 1990)

Douglas Jack Wiseman, Member for the electoral districts of Lanark and Lanark--Renfrew (October 21, 1971 to September 5, 1990)

Lily Oddie Munro, Member for Hamilton Centre (May 2, 1985 to September 5, 1990)

Richard Patten, Member for...