It’s my pleasure to rise to highlight an organization which is improving the lives of students within my riding of Eglinton–Lawrence and around Ontario and across Canada: Pathways to Education. I fully support Pathways’ mission to help high school students who face barriers to reach their full potential through education.

Pathways focuses on supporting students from low-income households who might otherwise struggle to finish secondary school or even drop out. Pathways provides lots of practical support, even bus tickets, for participants to get to school. Essentially, it provides them with what they need to finish their education so that they can have all the possibilities that that opens.

A few weeks ago, Owen Hinds and the rest of the Pathways team at Lawrence Heights invited me to once again tour their Pathways facilities in my riding. I enjoyed meeting the students, who were busy working on their homework assignments, supported by peers and by other volunteer mentors. Pathways boasts over 800 volunteers, who should be commended for their over 26,000 volunteer hours. With over 19,000 students having benefited from Pathways since 2001 and over 6,000 currently in the program, 78% graduate from school and 69% go on to post-secondary education. It’s a true success story.

Along with the Minister of Colleges and Universities, I attended their grad ball recently, as well, to celebrate with them and continue to support all of their efforts.

Speaker, I’m wearing purple today to show my support for the education workers, the education assistants, custodians, early childhood educators, school secretaries and other school support staff who provide vital supports to students, yet are the lowest-paid workers in the school system.

Parents in London West and across the province know the contributions of these workers to the success and safety of their children, and they want to see them fairly compensated. They also want more supports for struggling students in schools instead of direct payments to parents for an hour or two of tutoring, which won’t do anything to help students catch up and requires parents to try to track down a tutor.

CBC London shared some comments from parents. One said, “You can’t have a government at the table saying we have no money to give education workers, then provide all these random payments to parents.”

Another asked, “Wouldn’t it just be a better decision to take that money and hire EAs? That way, this so-called catch-up plan could be a plan that helps teachers support our students and not put the burden back on parents.”

A third said, “This feels a little bit more like a bribe to parents and families,” and would rather have that money go back into the education system.

Instead of a $365-million catch-up program, why won’t this government invest in the supports that would really help kids catch up—the education workers who support students in our schools?

There’s a frightening crisis in children’s hospitals across Ontario. Children are waiting days in emergency rooms, facing cancelled procedures, and—for what must be every parent’s nightmare—they are being sent across the province to find care beds.

Bruce Squires, who is the president of McMaster Children’s Hospital, is sounding the alarm: “Our pediatric critical care capacity is so limited that critically ill children are having to be transferred outside of their local area to be admitted to an ICU.” This is a situation that he calls “extremely concerning.” Critically ill children from Hamilton have been sent as far away as Ottawa to find a bed in a pediatric unit. As of Thursday, there were 11 patients in the ER who had been admitted to hospital but were still waiting for a bed, some for 30 hours or more.

Grey, who is a four-year-old boy from Ancaster, waited five days for emergency elbow surgery. Now his mom is warning other parents that the system is a disaster and people need to know what to expect.

It should be our highest priority to care for sick, injured or dying children. But instead, hospitals are being slowly starved by this government’s disastrous plan to privatize health care. We need more investments in our struggling health care system, not a profits-over-people approach.

We have the solutions. We need to implement them now to make things better for children across Ontario.

I didn’t want to interrupt the member for Eglinton–Lawrence, but the volume of the private conversations collectively is at a level where it must be difficult for members to concentrate on their presentation, so I would ask members to please quiet them down.

I’d like to introduce the family of page Elliott from my riding of Oakville. In the members’ gallery, we have Audrey Wubbenhorst and Eloise Dixon. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Speaker, 40 days ago, on September 16, 2022, a young 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, was brutally murdered by the morality police of the terrorist and illegitimate Islamic regime in Iran. Since then, the brave people of Iran have been protesting—protesting 43 years of a brutal dictatorship.

This is the same dictatorship that almost three years ago shot down Ukraine flight PS752, killing over 50 Canadians, and I would like to thank Premier Ford for taking swift action back in January 2020 by siding with the people of Iran and announcing scholarships to honour every single Canadian murdered during that plane crash.

Hundreds if not thousands of Iranians have been arrested, murdered, tortured and killed by the brutal and terrorist illegitimate Islamic regime in Iran. For Iranians mourning someone’s passing, the 40th day is incredibly significant. And it’s not just Mahsa Jina Amini’s family that is mourning; all of the people of Iran are mourning. Iranians around the world are mourning, and the world is mourning with them. There are nation-wide strikes happening, and while pro-Islamic regime lobby groups like the Iranian Canadian Congress have tried to apologize for the regime, the world has opened its eyes.

The regime has shut down the Internet to prevent the voices of the people of Iran from being heard. But they are asking the world for one simple thing: to be their voice, to share their stories and to make them heard.

I have several hundred constituents in my riding who, just like me, are of Iranian origin. Today, I want to let the people of Iran know that they are not alone in their fight for freedom and democracy. Here in Canada, we are blessed to live in a free and democratic society. The people of Iran deserve the same.

I have the great honour of introducing my constituency office dream team: Monika MacAlpine, Jenny Yeung, Paul de Roos and, just starting today, my parliamentary and legislative executive assistant, Martin Kasprzak.

I am once again delighted to welcome proud dad Dr. Collin Clarke, who is here today in support of his daughter, Pearl Clarke, one of our pages, along with proud uncle and aunt Adam and Melody Clarke and proud cousin Emma Clarke. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I am seeking unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 100(a)(iv), the independent members be permitted to share the five minutes allotted to a single member for the debate on ballot item number 4, standing in the name of the member for Brantford–Brant.

It is my pleasure to introduce some of my executive assistant’s family from Taiwan. Welcome to Mr. Joe Russo and his wife, Agata Chang. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Once again, I’m going to ask members to please keep the volume of their private conversations lower. I can barely hear the member who has the floor. Thank you.

The House observed a moment’s silence.

I’d like to welcome the family of the legislative page from Mississauga Centre, Amy Do Rego-Luis. Her family is visiting today: Sandra Do Rego, Sofia Do Rego-Luis, Joshua Do Rego-Luis, Maria Do Rego, Angie Sansalone and Anh Phan. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s my privilege to welcome and introduce to the House today Jim Vigmond, co-founder of the law firm of Oatley Vigmond LLP, a leading Ontario trial lawyer and the 2022 recipient of the Ontario Bar Association insurance award for excellence.

Good morning. I’d like to welcome Marlon Porter to the Legislative Assembly today. He’s an extremely talented artist from my riding whose art is currently being shown in the legislative dining room, so I encourage everybody to please take a look. Welcome, Marlon.

I’d like to give a warm welcome to Michau van Speyk from Parkdale–High Park.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, Malini is one of our pages, and her father, Ayyappan Subramaniyan from Markham–Stouffville, joins us here today. Welcome to Queen’s Park, sir.

My question is to the Premier.

Yesterday, we saw both the Premier and the former Solicitor General—now Deputy Premier—dodge questions about their summons from the Public Order Emergency Commission. In fact, since the summons was issued, we haven’t heard a word from either the Premier or the former Solicitor General. Hiding the problem does not make it go away.

I ask the Premier, will he come clean and commit today to speaking with the commission?

Back to the Premier—

Interjections.

Speaker, the Premier was hiding then, when he let convoy organizers occupy Ottawa and harass residents, and he is hiding now by not testifying at the commission. He cannot hide forever. Will the Premier finally do the right thing, go to Ottawa and testify before the commission?

Mr. Speaker, this is a federal inquiry into the federal government’s use of the federal Emergencies Act. From day one, for Ontario, this was a policing matter; it was not a political matter.

The opposition knows politicians don’t direct the police. Top officials from the OPP, who were running the operation in conjunction with the municipal police agencies and the RCMP, are testifying at the committee.

Again, Mr. Speaker, this is a federal inquiry into the federal government’s decision to use the federal Emergencies Act.

I’m now going to ask our pages to assemble for their introductions.

It is my distinct pleasure as Speaker to welcome this latest group of legislative pages: from the riding of Markham–Stouffville, Malini Ayyappan; from Cambridge, Vanessa Bal; from Huron–Bruce, Rachel Beith; from Dufferin–Caledon, Mitchell Blanden; from London West, Pearl Clarke; from Oakville, Elliott Dixon; from Mississauga Centre, Amy Do Rego-Luis; from Don Valley East, Karma Dorji; from Windsor–Tecumseh, Marshall Dowie; from the riding of Timmins, Jacob Dunkley; from Nickel Belt, Molly Farrell; from Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte, Julien Gingras; from Scarborough Southwest, Julie Harrop; from Kanata–Carleton, Conner Kam; from Toronto–St. Paul’s, Sofia Marra; from Kitchener South–Hespeler, Mae McNamara; from the riding of Orléans, Bridget Osezua; from Ottawa Centre, Gabrielle Ovens; from Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry, Nolan Stoqua; and from the riding of King–Vaughan, Sahana Suren.

Welcome.

Applause.

Stop the clock.

The House will come to order. We’ve got 58 minutes and 26 seconds to go. We’re just getting started. It’s the second day. I have to be able to hear the member who has the floor.

Start the clock. Supplementary question.

Interjections.