Debate on motion to silence Ontario NDP legislator set to resume

By Staff The Canadian Press

Posted October 23, 2023 6:08 am

Updated October 23, 2023 12:18 pm

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TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government has passed a motion to censure a Hamilton legislator for a statement she made on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The motion passed shortly after the legislator, Sarah Jama, was removed from the NDP caucus today.

Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles had originally defended Jama after she issued an apology for her initial statement, but said today that she and Jama had agreed that in order for her to stay in caucus they would work together “in good faith with no surprises.”

Stiles says Jama made “a number of unilateral actions” that have undermined the party’s collective work and broken the trust of her colleagues.

Jama spoke this morning in the legislature against the Tories’ motion and said the province is targeting her to distract from its own scandals, and also said that governments and institutions in Canada are trying to use their voice and weight to silence people who support Palestinians.

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The Progressive Conservative motion effectively silences Jama in the legislature and calls on the Speaker not to recognize her in the House until she retracts her original statement and apologizes again.

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Jama’s original statement, on social media, decried “the generations long occupation of Palestine” without mentioning the attack by Hamas militants on Israeli civilians.

2:26 MPP Sarah Jama threatens to sue Premier Doug Ford over Israel-Hamas comments

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