Questions?

It’s always a pleasure to rise in this House and give my two cents, my remarks, on the important legislation.

What we’re debating today is Bill 26. As a father of two children—a daughter who is in grade 12 and is applying to post-secondary school, as well as a son who is actually enrolled in an Ontario post-secondary program, in university—this topic hits very close to home.

I had the opportunity to attend the 2022 university fair, and that was a reminder that the path in further education for our young Ontarians, our leaders of today, remains bright. At the same time, like any other parent, I’m always concerned—and this, I believe, requires oversight nonetheless. When I was at the university fair, I actually saw first-hand students with ambition, drive, bursting with excitement, getting ready for the next chapter of their life. That is why it is extremely important for us as legislators, as the family, as the parents, as Ontarians, to come together and make sure these leaders of today and tomorrow have the support they need.

That is why Bill 26, Strengthening Post-secondary Institutions and Students Act, 2022, aims to provide students with a safer environment which is inclusive and helps promote personal and academic growth.

Madam Speaker, we were having a conversation, and we talked about soccer moms, hockey moms—I was talking to my wife, and she brought up another term, “snowplow parents.” I asked, “What is a snowplow parent?” She said, “Well, if you think about winter—what does a snowplow do? It clears the snow so that when we’re driving, we do not slip; we do not skid; we have a safer path to move forward.”

I think that’s exactly what we’re doing here—we’re going to give our children a safer path so that they can concentrate on what they want to do best to succeed in their life. This is what Bill 26 is doing.

What we’re doing in this bill—the Ministry of Colleges and Universities is proposing legislative amendments to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act and the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005, that would enhance institutional sexual violence policies at publicly assisted colleges and universities and private career colleges, particularly with respect to faculty and staff sexual misconduct towards students. And how are we going to do that? Well, we’re making sure the amendments are in line with the government’s commitment to ensure students have access to a safer learning environment.

I absolutely believe that every student deserves the chance to attend post-secondary education without impediments.

I want to share with fellow Ontarians and our youth that your government is making sure we are putting steps in the direction—so that you have a bright future. When we talk about investments—we’re making sure we have 30,000 long-term-care beds; we have four hours of home care. We have 86,000 child care spaces we want to build. We want to build over 1.5 million homes. We want to make sure we are building subways. We are making sure we are getting investments in electrical vehicle manufacturing. We are making sure that we are investing in the construction of highways. We are expanding broadband and natural gas so that more and more opportunities can come. In order for us to do this, we want to make sure that our youth are ready to proceed and succeed in their life. We want to make sure the $158 billion the government is going to be investing in the next 10 years—we are making sure that the future of our youth is strong. That is why we are making sure we are bringing these bills—so that they have a better career and a better education.

I want to share some data with you. According to Maclean’s, a survey conducted by the Student Voices on Sexual Violence committee, completed in 2018, reported that 23% of Ontario university students experienced non-consensual sexual contact. Furthermore, in Ontario’s 2018 Student Voices on Sexual Violence survey, more than 70% of Western University students reported sexual harassment. There should be no room in post-secondary education for sexual harassment or violence of any kind—not only at Ontario universities; in fact, anywhere in this world.

When we’re talking about the bill, when we’re talking about Ontario, I want to echo the Honourable Minister of Colleges and Universities, when she said this bill would strengthen universities’ ability to address sexual violence and misconduct towards students. I want to echo the words of Charlene Senn, the Canada research chair in sexual violence at the University of Windsor: “Every day—on our campuses and off—women are still being confronted by men attempting to sexually assault them. I believe the” bill “will allow our government to strengthen Ontario universities to address the real-life problems Ontario students face daily.”

By preventing the use of non-disclosure agreements, universities will be better equipped to address instances where faculty leave an institution to be employed at another institution and their prior wrongdoings remain a secret. We want to make sure there are proactive measures, such as requiring institutions to have codes of conduct regarding faculty and staff sexual misconduct. It’s a step in the right direction to addressing such issues.

Madam Speaker, research conducted by Statistics Canada says that one in 10—about 11% of students who identify as women at Canadian post-secondary schools were sexually assaulted in a post-secondary setting in 2019, compared to 4% of students who identify as men. The majority, 71% of students, witnessed or experienced unwanted sexual behaviours either on or off campus, or in an online situation that involved students or other people associated with the school.

By supporting this bill, it is clear that this side of the government, the caucus members on this side, are taking such concerns with the utmost seriousness and will continue to work for our children, for our students.

Our government believes in acknowledging the past and making sure we take corrective action for the present and for the future. I endorse the proposed amendments in the Strengthening Post-secondary Institutions and Students Act, 2022, to formally change what was formerly known as Ryerson University to Toronto Metropolitan University, and the changes to TMU’s senate composition, by making room for representation for its new law school and medical school. The Ministry of Colleges and Universities collaborated with the council for equality of opportunity, which provided key identifiers to help Ontario’s minorities acquire and excel in post-secondary programs. Both proposed changes are crucial to establishing a course that Ontario, its students and its universities can feel proud of, and we can be the envy of the world.

Universities and colleges are an important place in providing personnel for the labour market—and I was talking about all the investments we are doing. We are in a situation and a stage where we actually have close to 400,000 jobs going unfilled. Those are the paycheques which are not being collected—and it is the utmost requirement for us to make sure that students have the time and the availability to focus on what they have to do to succeed in their lives. That’s why we are making sure that this bill helps and supports those students.

As parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, I want to talk about some of the things that we’re doing with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. Through programs such as the Ontario Postsecondary Access and Inclusion Program, introduced in 2018, to address non-financial barriers in post-secondary education—we have continued to achieve and thrive and make sure we’re helping these students. The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario conducted a scan of similar access programs across North America and explored available data related to access and student outcomes in Ontario. We found that through this program, we are able to help students from historically under-represented fields, through important interventions and different approaches—for example, Bursary for Students with Disabilities provides funding on a provincial scale with students who have permanent disabilities. This guarantees that in Ontario all students can attend university and receive grants up to $2,000 per year, to ensure that they have the financial means not only to remain in their program of choice but also to excel.

The government remains committed to ensuring equitable access to education across the board.

At Ontario Tech University, the Silicon Valley company Verkada highlighted how impressive Ontario students were—especially Reese Daniel, an intern from the school, where she actually had the opportunity and has shown leadership in the field.

Madam Speaker, in order for us to do what we’re doing through this bill—recent media reports have highlighted incidents of faculty sexual misconduct towards students. For example, in August 2021, the ministry consulted with stakeholders to obtain a better understanding of the instances of faculty and staff sexual violence on campus and to determine a policy response. Ensuring that all students feel safe on campus is a key priority for this government and all caucus members. That is why the government is introducing policies that will enhance institutional sexual violence policies at publicly assisted colleges and universities and private career colleges. The ministry has consulted with over 100 stakeholders, including representatives from post-secondary educational institutions, labour groups, student groups, private career colleges, faculty associations and community organizations. This policy will apply to all publicly assisted colleges and universities and private career colleges—and the ministry has taken a similar approach as it has with the previous sexual violence provincial policies.

By having this bill, if passed, institutions would be required to have their employee sexual misconduct policies in place by July 1, 2023. On the same date, the new legal consequences for employee sexual misconduct would come into force.

To conclude: The proposed bill is a step in the right direction for the current generation of Ontario scholars. The bill, again, implies—an inclusive space ensuring and taking discrimination of any form will not be tolerated. Our government wants to provide every Ontarian with equal access, protection and inclusion to post-secondary education. The proposed amendments continue that trend, and I’m proud to say that I endorse all these changes.

I urge all members of this chamber: Let’s come together, work together and build a better Ontario.

It points out how we really need to have good, strong process at a campus level.

I will say what people behind the most recent Queen’s University campaign I cited said recently, when they noted some of the complaints that came through the Instagram campaign. Some university officials said that it was too difficult to track down individuals, and that maybe they should consider drinking less at campus events—and the year is 2021 when these comments are being made, not 1991.

Further debate?

My question is to the government with regard to their bill, Strengthening Post-secondary Institutions and Students Act.

This government says they care for survivors and want to create conditions to make it easier for survivors to come forward and to get justice. So I’d like to know why the government is sitting on billions of surplus dollars, including $2.6 billion that they could be using to support post-secondary schools as we speak, right now, to hire those caring folks who support survivors, who support people who are trying to navigate the system to get the justice.

I’m wondering why the government is sitting on $23 billion in shortfalls to health. Whether it’s the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, whether it’s any organization that’s helping survivors—that is part of our health care. Helping survivors is part of our health care; it’s part of education; it’s part of children, community and social services. Why is the government claiming to care about those who have survived sexual assault but they’re cutting the very sectors that are there to help survivors?

Thank you to the member across for his comments.

Contained in this bill, Bill 26, the NDA language is very clear that it only is precluded after a court or arbitrator has found wrongdoing. So the bill still allows an employer, a union or an employee to sign an NDA at any time until a court arbitrator decision is issued. My question is, why is your government allowing this massive loophole to exist? Why are you not banning all NDAs?

Question?

Thanks to the member opposite for asking this important question.

I want to say this again, Madam Speaker: This bill intends to make sure that our children can succeed in their lives. Preventing the use of non-disclosure agreements will help to limit instances where an employee leaves an institution to be employed at another institution and by doing this their prior wrongdoing remains a secret.

Through this bill, we will make sure that there is greater transparency with respect to faculty and staff who are found to have committed sexual abuse of a student. We will plug that hole.

Madam Speaker, again, talking about this bill, and when we were talking about what we did last March—last March, our government imposed regulations designed around empowering students who are survivors of or have knowledge of an instance of sexual violence. One of the most important changes we put in place was that if someone comes forward with information about an act of sexual violence, they’re granted certain exceptions. This was the biggest challenge—and that’s what we’re doing through this bill. Bill 26 would continue to build on these regulations and further our schools’ ability to protect our students.

When we talk about the policy, what we’re doing, how the ministry is going to address the survivor-centric model—that’s something which you’re asking—the ministry has a responsibility to ensure that it is taking the appropriate steps to ensure that students are safe at publicly assisted colleges and universities and private career colleges.

Through this bill, if passed, institutions will be in a better position in responding to the allegations of faculty and staff sexual misconduct towards students, something which is required for our leaders of today and tomorrow to grow and succeed. That is what we are doing in this, Madam Speaker, and I’m looking forward to all the members supporting this bill.

It’s a pleasure to always rise on behalf of our wonderful community in St. Paul’s. Today, I’m adding my words on Bill 26, Strengthening Post-secondary Institutions and Students Act.

I would first like to give a shout-out to the wonderful folks at Counterpoint Counselling and Educational Cooperative Inc. They run a men’s program. The core of their work provides psycho-educational counselling for men who have been abusive to their partners and have been mandated to participate in PAR by the criminal justice system. Services are provided in English, Spanish and Tagalog. That’s just a little bit of information about a wonderful organization that works with survivors and also perpetrators. They recognize that perpetrators have to be part of the solution. It is not only resting on the shoulders—it should never rest on the shoulders of survivors to fix the system. We have to have perpetrators also taking accountability for their action, but we also have to provide them with the space and the opportunity and the community-based resources so that they can shift and become, hopefully, positive, contributing members of their society.

Speaker, every year, an estimated 636,000 cases of sexual assault are self-reported across Canada, including 41% reported by students at post-secondary education. In 2021, 34,242 cases of sexual assault were reported to the police. That is 18% higher than 2020 and the highest number since 1996. This cannot be okay.

This Conservative Ontario has the lowest per-student funding in Canada. This means that, here in Ontario, some of the highest tuition costs, the highest loan repayments, are sitting on the shoulders of students while they try to navigate the academic, social, emotional and physical realities of post-secondary education. All the while, the government is sitting on billions of surplus dollars that over the next several years—could be useful now while we’re trying to fix our post-secondary institutions, our education sectors, our health care sectors. I could go on.

But anyway, I wanted to say, in our riding of St. Paul’s, we are home to the George Brown Casa Loma Campus situated within our Tarragon Village community. Many post-secondary students in St. Paul’s attend GBC, where students have access to a variety of academic centres and schools, from the School of Apprenticeship and Skilled Trades and School of Mechanical Engineering Technologies to the Centre for Arts, Design and Information Technology, where post-secondary students can thrive; the School of Computer Technology; School of Fashion and Jewellery, etc., etc., etc.—thriving today and building what they hope will be careers tomorrow.

Outside of GBC, of course, St. Paul’s students are all across our country, and while they’re across our country, while they’re anywhere they are in post-secondary education, we’re hoping that they are trying on leadership roles, building healthy relationships, and that they’re building a network that, frankly, they will have a lifetime. What students do not go to school to experience is sexual assault. They shouldn’t have to experience sexual assault. That should never be part of the experience at schools.

For any students watching who may have experienced violence on campus, I want to remind you that it is never your fault. You did not deserve this, and whatever feelings you are feeling right now are incredibly valid.

George Brown College’s sexual violence response adviser can be reached at 416-415-5000, extension 3450. They’re always there to answer the call.

For many post-secondary students, going off to college or university, whether living on or off campus, truly is the first time that you’re away from home, that you’re away from some of those familial connections that you need to feel safe. Post-secondary may also be the space where prior conversations on consent, safe and healthy relationships become centre stage as students are being exposed to school communities much larger than their high schools, for instance, and in some cases much larger than their home communities even.

It is because of this, among many other reasons, why it’s crucial that institutions of higher learning are safe spaces so students, regardless of age, can feel safe and supported. If anything, this bill needs to help create safe spaces for students, but it cannot only look at student or employer-to-student sexual violence; it should also include student-to-student—grad students as well.

I want to mention, on the piece around schedule 1, subsection 1(6), which was even difficult for me to fully weed through, let alone someone who may never have seen a government bill before, it needs to be clear that the NDAs should be banned. The fact that they are allowed until the end of the judicial process could essentially silence someone for two years, two and a half years, three years—however long that process takes. And we know that NDAs are harmful in cases of sexual assault. They work to protect the perpetrator, to prop up their power and privilege while handing perpetrators a licence to repeat their violence, quite frankly, over and over again, untouched, all while sexual assault survivors are muzzled from speaking their truth.

They also have the impact of preventing sexual assault survivors from seeking the counselling or reaching out to their friends and family about their experience for support in fear of breaking the agreement. Students need to have access to the resources of their choice to talk their trauma through. This is fundamental to a survivor’s recovery. So it needs to be clear what this NDA ban does, or what an NDA ban would and would not do. That needs to be clear in your legislation.

The bill also seeks to ban the reemployment of employees within public and private institutions who have been discharged because they have sexually assaulted a student. The bill also defines sexual abuse in relation to a student of a public institution. It seeks to ensure that students are free from a reprisal or threat of reprisal for the rejection of sexual solicitation or advances.

Again, these are pieces that the bill suggests, and I think it needs to be very, very clear how the bill is helping survivors, how the bill is helping build communities, school communities, and, I would even argue, just community-based resources period, because of course, students may be part of their school community but they’re of course part of their larger community as well, too.

I urge this government to look closer at the realities of student life, to expand this bill’s first two schedules, which remain limited, as I said earlier, to employee-student misconduct. Sadly, sexual assault and rape culture on campus is much more pervasive. And as I said earlier, it also includes student-to-student dynamics.

A 2021 article from Maclean’s magazine reported that 23% of Ontario university students have experienced non-consensual sexual contact. Meanwhile, 63% have experienced sexual harassment; 5% of women and 2% of men have said that the perpetrator was a professor or an instructor. So I cannot highlight enough that it cannot simply be only about students and employers. We need to also look at student-to-student ratios.

Another report from Statistics Canada, published in 2020, showed that nearly three quarters of university students in Canada “witnessed or experienced unwanted sexualized behaviour in a post-secondary setting in 2019—either on campus, or in an off-campus situation that involved students or other people associated with the school.”

And I have to say, when I read words like “misconduct” and “unwanted sexual behaviour” and “negative sexual encounters,” I do think that part of addressing the problem is naming the problem. I think we should be using correct language. Rape is rape. Sexual assault is sexual assault. Abuse is abuse. Efforts at “respectable language” does nothing but erase the significance of the violence against sexual assault survivors who, I cannot underscore enough, are disproportionately women.

I want to also take some time to mention the words of the member for Kitchener Centre, who has done fantastic outreach as the critic for colleges and universities: “A lot of the sexual violence happens between students and students—so the other missing piece is grad students. They are both an employee of the institution and a student.... So what happens if they are the perpetrator and they are fired ... but they’re still a student? Does that mean the survivor has to be in that program (with them)?”

Our member from Kitchener Centre has also warned that without minimum standards—the member from Toronto Centre has also raised this—for how these investigations happen or by whom, the government’s tinkering will not get us to our goal. I echo her questions about what implementation of this bill will look like, and whether or not the government is ready to invest actual finances into post-secondary education to end gender-based violence in post-secondary education.

This work requires long-term, stable funding to ensure financial security, but it also involves culturally relevant supports, supports that are in all languages, supports that are ready to reach survivors where they are, along the continuum of healing as well as the continuum of justice.

I want to thank the member from Mississauga–Malton for his comments.

My question to him is that—this is clearly a piece of legislation that is putting the students first. It’s putting forward protecting our students, a critical resource for us in our future. My question for the member is: Consultation is an important process, and I’m wondering if the member could tell us what kind of consultation we went through with our student population in the preparation of this legislation.

I just want to acknowledge and thank the member for Simcoe–Grey, somebody who was the mayor of Collingwood. I had the privilege of many, many memories of Cranberry Resort in Collingwood.

Madam Speaker, this bill is an extremely important bill in the right direction. As we heard from the minister, she outlined in her remarks that this legislation did not just come overnight. It was based on hours and hours of consultation with faculty staff, presidents, students and several written submissions to the ministry.

What was telling about these consultations is that while the ministry went looking for a general conversation on how to address sexual violence on campus, almost all of these conversations were steered by participants towards faculty or student sexual violence. That is why, Madam Speaker, what we’re doing in Bill 26 is we’re addressing that issue so that the leaders of today and tomorrow can succeed.

For example, Steve Orsini, the president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities, said, “Ontario’s universities are committed to ensure student, faculty and staff safety and strongly condemn all forms of sexual violence or harassment. Building on today’s announcement, all of our universities have developed and continue to regularly review their institutional sexual violence policies and processes to ensure that they maintain a survivor-centric approach.”

This is the kind of help and support that we’ve got for the bill, which is a step in the right direction.

Thank you to the member for Mississauga–Malton for his great dissertation there. I listened intently to all of it.

I know we don’t have a lot of time, Speaker. Maybe the member could talk about a number of actions that this government is taking to keep students safe in the last couple of years.

The following is the title of the bill to which Her Honour did assent:

An Act to repeal the Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022 / Loi abrogeant la Loi de 2022 visant à garder les élèves en classe.

I appreciated the member’s reference to some of the data that has been collected in the student surveys, and in particular, the very disturbing data from Western University about the prevalence of students’ experiences of sexual violence. Western University has been taking exemplary measures to deal with that data and other issues at the institution. That includes university-wide mandatory training. That is the kind of holistic investment in prevention and education that would really make a difference for students in our institutions in this province.

I’d like to ask the member, why did the government not include measures like campus-wide education and training for all students, staff and faculty?

Question?

Thank you to the member for that question. Quite frankly, as many investments as are needed to create a safe climate, a safe condition for students to thrive in school without having to fear violence, without having to fear bodily harm, without having to fear psychological harm at the hands of perpetrators.

Specifically, as I said earlier, this government is sitting on $44 billion. That’s a pretty big shortfall that includes billions of dollars that should be going to post-secondary education, to our education sector, to our health care sector, to children, community and social services. All of these, as far as I’m aware, are impacted or are somehow related to supporting victims of violence. Whether you’re supporting the children, supporting the parents, supporting the students, you don’t support them by cutting billions of dollars to the very sectors that will support survivors of violence.

Question?

Thank you to the member for her comments. I listened to this last portion; I listened to all your comments. This last portion—actually, let me start off by saying that it sounds like, in general, there’s an agreement that obviously more needs to be done. It’s a challenging area. I think all people would say—certainly myself and everyone on this side of the government—that any one incident of sexual violence is one too many. So we want to get to zero.

When you reference, though, that more needs to be done and, you know, “Where’s the investments?”—you made the comment about investments that would get us to no incidents. What types of investments would you suggest would actually create zero incidents in the post-secondary education sector?

As the member for Toronto–St. Paul’s said so eloquently, the community organizations that are really the pioneers on shoestring budgets—you talked about it at the outset, someone engaged in specific efforts at male counselling. I was wondering if you could just elaborate on that, because I’m aware, with the Portapique massacre in Nova Scotia, that the inquiry into that has brought Nova Scotian therapists out in new and creative ways to try to reach perpetrators, to reach men to actually enrol in these programs, and they’ve had a high success rate. But I’m wondering if you could talk about that community organization that you know in Toronto–St. Paul’s and what they need from the government.