Ontario Premier Doug Ford: Out of Order!

"It's extremely politically sensitive, obviously, but procedurally I believe I made the right decision in the sense of past rulings of speakers and precedents and traditions."

"In my opinion, having done the research, it appeared to me that the keffiyeh is being worn to make a political statement."

Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, Ted Arnott

 

"I think [Speaker Arnott's ruling] is the correct decision, in the same way we can't use other kinds of political clothing."

"We can't wear T-shirts that say 'Free the hostages', or wrap ourselves in a flag or whatever."

"We have to follow the rules of the legislature. Otherwise, we politicize the entire debate inside the legislature and that's not what it's about ... we use our words to persuade, not our items of clothing".

Progressive Conservative backbencher Robin Martin

 

"It really comes down to uniting Ontarians and communities."

"We see the division right now that's going on. It's not healthy, and this will just divide the community even more."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

Keffiyehs remain banned in the Ontario Legislature after a motion to overrule House Speaker Ted Arnott’s prohibition failed to pass at Queen’s Park on Thursday. CBC

One would think and hope that someone of the political stature and influence of the premier of Canada's most populous province would be more aware and sensitive to the implications of permitting an iconic symbol of Palestinian 'resistance' against the 'occupation' of Gaza and the West Bank by the State of Israel would be recognized as throwing political weight in the Palestinian-occupied wing of slanderous propaganda. Worse, that seeing that symbol worn in the provincial parliament, the impression that the provincial government agrees that Palestinians and their terrorist hordes have the right to raid Israeli territory to threaten, to rape, to torture, and to murder Jews in Israel.

 

The Speaker of the Ontario legislature appears to be courageously standing on principle alongside the legislature's own rules when he defied the popular (unanimous) decision of the Members of Provincial Parliament when they opted to allow keffiyeh-clad individuals to display their obvious rancor against Israel, bringing the conflict that rages in the Middle East into Canada and its levels of government as an entitlement to slander the Jewish State and propagate for its destruction as a 'final solution' to their struggle to destroy the ancestral Jewish presence in the Middle East. 

The keffiyeh is emblematic of Palestinian rejection of sharing the geography that the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 partitioned, offering Jews one portion of their traditional geography upon which to declare a modern state, and the other to the Palestinians who claim the entire territory as uniquely and solely theirs, rejecting the reality of history that reflects a Judaean presence from antiquity to the present; in fact the original 'Palestinians' as named by the Roman occupiers of the Middle East during that era.

There is a long-standing rule in the legislature that members may not make use of props, signage or accessories with the intention of expressing a political statement, and it is that rule that the Speaker of the Legislature relied upon to refuse to permit that resonating political symbol to make its appearance in the Legislature of Ontario. Having established the facts through his own "extensive research", the Speaker was confident in the applicability of his ruling.

 

The unanimous consent of the legislature is sought by members of provincial parliament when they wish to express solidarity with a specific theme or event. Provincial NDP leader Marit Stiles had moved a unanimous consent motion days earlier claiming the keffiyeh to be a culturally significant item of clothing in Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities and as such should be given permission to be worn in Parliament. Some of those present in the Legislature demurred, the loudest "no" emanating from another Progressive Conservative MPP.

"Speaker Arnott is the longest serving MPP in the legislature and has spent three decades upholding the rules and procedures of the House."

"As the longest serving woman at Queen’s Park I support his ruling because it keeps with tradition and reminds members to keep our debates focused on words rather than on political props."

"Arnott chose parliamentary convention over political weather [vanes]."

Ontario Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod

Queen's Park, Toronto   Frank Gunn, The Canadian Press