“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas police provide protection to some of the most vulnerable members of our society; and

“The provincial government has launched the Guns, Gangs and Violence Reduction Strategy; and

“The 2023-2024 budget commits an additional $13.4 million to this strategy;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“That the Legislative Assembly of Ontario reject the defund the police position and continue funding police, seizing illegal guns, suppressing gangs and supporting victims of violence through the Guns, Gangs and Violence Reduction Strategy.”

Speaker, I support this petition. I will sign my name to it and ask page Sally to take it to the Clerks.

I move that, in the opinion of this House, the government should reject the “defund the police” position and continue funding police, seizing illegal guns, suppressing gangs and supporting victims of violence through the Guns, Gangs and Violence Reduction Strategy.

I rise today to voice my support for this motion and for our province’s outstanding police officers. While some seek to vilify our police, this government is committed to investing in police to tackle violent crime and to create safer communities across Ontario.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to participate in a ride along with the Hamilton Police Service and saw first-hand the compassion that their officers have for all members of our community, including marginalized people. Every day, thousands of brave men and women across the province put on the uniform to serve and protect their communities. They have an incredibly difficult job that requires strength and sacrifice. Over the last year, our province has witnessed the tragic deaths of far too many officers in the line of duty. Now more than ever, police deserve our support, our respect and our gratitude.

Our government’s Guns, Gangs and Violence Reduction Strategy outlines the actions that we are taking to help our police stop crime and to get dangerous offenders of our streets. This strategy includes investments in a provincial gun and gang support unit to aid investigations and prosecutions of gun and gang crimes. It also includes funding to support major investigations into organized crime and drug and human trafficking. This strategy directs more resources towards community policing programs to help address concerns around mental health, addictions and hate-motivated crimes at the local level. Our government is also eliminating tuition fees for the basic constable training program at the Ontario Police College and increasing the number of police recruits per cohort from 480 to 550. These measures will deter criminals by increasing the number of police officers in our communities.

Some of the most heinous crimes that we have seen in our province recently were committed by offenders who were on bail. Our government is doing its part to prevent more of this senseless violence from occurring by investing $112 million to reinforce the bail system by supporting local police services in creating bail compliance teams and creating a province-wide bail compliance unit within the OPP to arrest high-risk offenders in violation of their bail conditions.

While our government takes concrete action to support our officers, radical activists and, unfortunately, some politicians have denigrated the sacrifice and bravery of police with calls to defund them. This kind of rhetoric is insulting. It is insulting to our police officers and it is insulting to victims of crime and Ontarians, who rely on police each and every day for their safety. Instead of condemning this rhetoric and supporting our government’s plan to reduce crime and invest in policing, the NDP has proposed taking away some of the tools that police rely on to do their jobs. Our government has unequivocally rejected defund-the-police rhetoric and has instead embraced policies that are serious and effective.

Sadly, the NDP has not just refused to join us in rejecting this rhetoric, they have endorsed it. Their policy commitment on policing said that calls to defund the police should not be dismissed, and that a conversation about defunding police is long overdue. I hope the member from Hamilton Centre takes the opportunity tonight to speak to this motion to explain why she tweeted, “Police in Ontario have a record of arbitrarily killing babies, Black, Indigenous, racialized, disabled civilians ... & those who are in crisis.” Shame.

I will be supporting this motion because we all must stand steadfast in our rejection of this kind of anti-police rhetoric, and we must continue to fund policing to support our officers and protect our communities.