Ayes/pour (63)

Anand	Barnes	Bethlenfalvy	Bouma
Byers	Calandra	Cho (Scarborough North)	Cho (Willowdale)
Coe	Crawford	Cuzzetto	Dowie
Downey	Dunlop	Fedeli	Flack
Ford (Etobicoke North)	Gallagher Murphy	Ghamari	Gill
Hardeman	Harris	Hogarth	Holland
Jones (Chatham-Kent—Leamington)	Jones (Dufferin—Caledon)	Jordan	Kanapathi
Ke	Kerzner	Khanjin	Leardi
Lecce	Lumsden	Martin	McCarthy
McGregor	Mulroney	Pang	Parsa
Piccini	Pierre	Quinn	Rae
Rickford	Riddell	Sabawy	Sandhu
Sarkaria	Sarrazin	Saunderson	Scott
Skelly	Smith (Parry Sound—Muskoka)	Smith (Peterborough—Kawartha)	Smith (Scarborough Centre)
Smith (Thornhill)	Surma	Thompson	Tibollo
Wai	Williams	Yakabuski

Nays/contre (22)

Andrew	Begum	Bell	Bourgouin
Burch	French	Gélinas	Harden
Jama	Karpoche	Kernaghan	Mamakwa
Pasma	Sattler	Schreiner	Stevens
Stiles	Taylor	Vanthof	Vaugeois
West	Wong-Tam

That this House expresses its disapproval of, and dissociates itself from, continued disreputable conduct by the Member for Hamilton Centre, most specifically her use of social media to make antisemitic and discriminatory statements related to the existence of the State of Israel and its defence against Hamas terrorists; and

That this House demands the Member desist from further conduct that is inappropriate and unbecoming of a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario; and

That the Speaker is authorized to not recognize the Member for Hamilton Centre in the House until the Member retracts and deletes her statements on social media and makes an apology in her place in the House.

Ayes/pour (63)

Anand	Barnes	Bethlenfalvy	Bouma
Byers	Calandra	Cho (Scarborough North)	Cho (Willowdale)
Coe	Crawford	Cuzzetto	Dowie
Downey	Dunlop	Fedeli	Flack
Ford (Etobicoke North)	Gallagher Murphy	Ghamari	Gill
Hardeman	Harris	Hogarth	Holland
Jones (Chatham-Kent—Leamington)	Jones (Dufferin—Caledon)	Jordan	Kanapathi
Ke	Kerzner	Khanjin	Leardi
Lecce	Lumsden	Martin	McCarthy
McGregor	Mulroney	Pang	Parsa
Piccini	Pierre	Quinn	Rae
Rickford	Riddell	Sabawy	Sandhu
Sarkaria	Sarrazin	Saunderson	Scott
Skelly	Smith (Parry Sound—Muskoka)	Smith (Peterborough—Kawartha)	Smith (Scarborough Centre)
Smith (Thornhill)	Surma	Thompson	Tibollo
Wai	Williams	Yakabuski

Nays/contre (23)

Andrew	Begum	Bell	Bourgouin
Burch	French	Gates	Gélinas
Harden	Jama	Karpoche	Kernaghan
Mamakwa	Pasma	Sattler	Schreiner
Stevens	Stiles	Taylor	Vanthof
Vaugeois	West	Wong-Tam

Ordered, That this House expresses its disapproval of, and dissociates itself from, continued disreputable conduct by the Member for Hamilton Centre, most specifically her use of social media to make antisemitic and discriminatory statements related to the existence of the State of Israel and its defence against Hamas terrorists; and

That this House demands the Member desist from further conduct that is inappropriate and unbecoming of a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario; and

That the Speaker is authorized to not recognize the Member for Hamilton Centre in the House until the Member retracts and deletes her statements on social media and makes an apology in her place in the House.

Earlier today, the Deputy Government House Leader (Trevor Jones) rose on a point of order regarding the motion on notice for Opposition Day No. 3, standing in the name of the Leader of the Official Opposition (Marit Stiles), which is scheduled for debate this afternoon. The Official Opposition House Leader (John Vanthof) also spoke to the point of order. After taking some time to understand the Members’ comments and the procedural authorities, I am prepared to rule on this matter.

The crux of the argument made by the Deputy Government House Leader is that the motion is out of order on the grounds that it violates the sub judice convention, as well as the Standing Order 25(g), which provides that a Member shall be called to order by the Speaker if he or she:

(g) Refers to any matter that is the subject of a proceeding,
            (i) that is pending in a court or before a judge for judicial determination; or
            (ii) that is before any quasi-judicial body constituted by the House or by or under the authority of an Act of the Legislature,
            where it is shown to the satisfaction of the Speaker that further reference would create a real and substantial danger of prejudice to the proceeding.

In brief, this is a restriction on the part of our House to refrain from discussing matters that are before a judicial or quasi-judicial body. In other words, it is a self-imposed restriction that the Legislative Assembly places upon itself so as to avoid prejudice to a judicial case. At its core is the principle that the separation between legislative and judicial bodies is to be respected. It applies to statements, debate and Question Period, and as the Member correctly points out, it has also been applied to the text of motions.

The text of the Opposition Day motion includes a preamble that raises a number of questions about various Government actions, and outstanding inquiries into those actions that the Member suggests are being conducted. The motion includes a statement that the Premier “has admitted that he regularly uses his personal phone to conduct Government business and those communications might be relevant to these inquiries” and the motion culminates in a proposed call on the Premier to “cease his access to information appeal and disclose the contents of his personal phone and email accounts to the Information and Privacy Commissioner.”

The Deputy Government House Leader argues that this is a reference to a request for information made to the Government, which was denied and is currently being appealed in accordance with Ontario’s access to information regime. Such appeals are made through the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The Deputy Government House Leader identifies the Information and Privacy Commissioner as a quasi-judicial body, an assertion with which I agree, and correctly observes that Standing Order 25(g) is applicable to matters that are the subject of proceedings before any quasi-judicial body.

I have taken the time to review our relevant body of precedents and to assess the text of the motion in question. The question I must consider is whether a debate and a subsequent House decision on the motion would create a real and substantial danger to a proceeding.

In his submission, the Deputy Government House Leader noted that the request for information and subsequent appeal were made by Global News, while the motion standing in the name of the Leader of the Official Opposition, “calls on the Premier to cease his access to information appeal”. It is unclear to me at present whether the motion is referring to the appeal described by the Deputy Government House Leader, but it is not the role of the Speaker to make this determination.

In any case, I am not satisfied that the House simply calling on the Premier to withdraw an appeal would create a real and substantial danger of prejudice to the quasi-judicial proceeding.

In a statement made on May 8, 2008, Speaker Peters quoted a 1976 report by a special committee of the Canadian House of Commons, which was set up to review the “rights and immunities of members.” The Committee considered the sub judice convention and recommended that:

“when there is doubt in the mind of the Chair, a presumption should exist in favour of allowing debate and against application of the convention.”

Consequently, I find that the motion is in order and that debate can proceed.

I thank the Members for their submissions.

Ordered, That the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs be authorized to meet during the winter 2023-2024 adjournment of the House at the call of the Chair.

Whereas the Government is under criminal investigation by the RCMP for their removal of lands from the Greenbelt; and

Whereas the Auditor General is in the process of reviewing whether there has been mismanagement and abuse of Ministerial Zoning Orders; and

Whereas there are outstanding questions about an inappropriate relationship between a former Government Minister and a land speculator, and incorrect information provided to the Integrity Commissioner about this relationship; and

Whereas there are outstanding questions about whether there was preferential treatment given to a foreign company to build a private spa on public land at Ontario Place; and

Whereas there are outstanding questions about preferential treatment given to Government donors and personal friends of the Premier with respect to the building of Highway 413; and

Whereas there are outstanding questions about unqualified patronage appointments to public agencies, boards, and commissions; and

Whereas the Premier has admitted that he regularly uses his personal phone to conduct Government business and those communications might be relevant to these inquiries;

Therefore the Legislative Assembly calls on the Premier to cease his access to information appeal and disclose the contents of his personal phone and email accounts to the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Ayes/pour (30)

Andrew	Armstrong	Begum	Blais
Bourgouin	Bowman	Burch	Fife
Fraser	French	Gates	Gélinas
Harden	Hazell	Hsu	Kernaghan
Mamakwa	Mantha	McCrimmon	Pasma
Rakocevic	Sattler	Shamji	Stevens
Stiles	Taylor	Vanthof	Vaugeois
West	Wong-Tam

Nays/contre (55)

Anand	Barnes	Bouma	Byers
Calandra	Cho (Scarborough North)	Cho (Willowdale)	Coe
Crawford	Cuzzetto	Dowie	Downey
Dunlop	Flack	Gallagher Murphy	Ghamari
Gill	Hardeman	Harris	Hogarth
Holland	Jones (Chatham-Kent—Leamington)	Jones (Dufferin—Caledon)	Jordan
Kanapathi	Kerzner	Kusendova-Bashta	Leardi
Lecce	Martin	McCarthy	McGregor
Mulroney	Oosterhoff	Pang	Pierre
Pirie	Rae	Rickford	Riddell
Sabawy	Sandhu	Sarkaria	Sarrazin
Saunderson	Scott	Skelly	Smith (Parry Sound—Muskoka)
Smith (Peterborough—Kawartha)	Smith (Thornhill)	Surma	Thompson
Wai	Williams	Yakabuski