I don’t have much time, but this is one tool, bringing forward—

Point of order?

The member for Toronto Centre.

To the member from Spadina–Fort York: He’ll recall that last fall we made policy changes to strengthen post-secondary students reporting sexual violence and harassment—several regulations and amendments that addressed some part of what you spoke of going forward. Remember that?

Notwithstanding, my question to the member from Spadina–Fort York is: Does the member opposite feel that faculty or staff who have a history of committing sexual violence be allowed to remain in their role protected by non-disclosure agreements? Or should they be dismissed?

Listening to the comments today, I’m reading some quotes from some of our presidents of universities like Laurier: “Laurier is committed to ensuring a safe, welcoming and inclusive ... environment for all students across our campuses. We support measures that will allow universities to build upon existing policies to ensure that students remain free from harassment both inside and outside of the classroom.”

And then I hear the remarks today. Throughout the various debates we’ve had, we’ve had the members from the opposition—through you, Madam Speaker—talking about sexual assault as costly and calling for non-partisan solutions to get where we need to go. Well, Speaker, Bill 26 proposes non-partisan solutions that will make a huge impact for students across the province. So, my question is: Will the opposition support Bill 26?

Thank you to the member from Spadina–Fort York for his comments. I want to ask a question with respect to NDAs, because we’ve heard the government members talk about how the NDAs are now going to be curtailed or they’re going to be banned in this bill, but that’s not the case. NDAs still exist under this legislation.

In Prince Edward county, one of the first provinces in Canada to do so, they’ve actually enacted legislation to stop non-disclosure agreements from being used to protect perpetrators of sexual violence. What is stopping this government from actually closing that loophole? Because they haven’t gone far enough, clearly. But why is it that they won’t go far enough? Do you know the answer to that?

Thank you to the member for Spadina–Fort York. One of the things you said that really caught my ear was “a culture of misogyny,” when you talked about the importance of prevention. I would just ask the member from Spadina–Fort York if he can talk about why prevention is so important in breaking apart a culture of misogyny.

I don’t know why this government is leaving this loophole around the non-disclosure agreements. The way it’s phrased right now, with this legislation, somebody could be asked or coerced to sign a non-disclosure agreement before the legal process is complete. That’s a huge gap. That’s a loophole in this legislation that I hope the government will address in committee.

That’s why I’m very supportive of my colleague’s consent awareness bill to declare a consent awareness week so that we have an ongoing educational program on campuses and across this province to raise awareness about sexual assault so that we can try to curtail it through education.

The question about this bill is that it doesn’t go far enough. The measures that are there are fine, but they’re not actually going to stop sexual assault on campus, which has got to be the goal—

I’d like to refer the bill to the Standing Committee on Social Policy, please.