This petition is entitled “Support the Gender-Affirming Health Care Act.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas two-spirit, transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and intersex communities face significant challenges to accessing health care services that are friendly, competent and affirming in Ontario;

“Whereas everyone deserves access to health care, and they shouldn’t have to fight for it, shouldn’t have to wait for it, and should never receive less care or support because of who they are;

“Whereas gender-affirming care is life-saving care;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to support MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam’s private member’s bill—the Gender-Affirming Health Care Advisory Committee Act—to improve access to and coverage for gender-affirming health care in Ontario.”

I support this petition. I’ll affix my signature and provide it to page Trent for the table.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the use of replacement workers undermines workers’ collective power, unnecessarily prolongs labour disputes, and removes the essential power that the withdrawal of labour is supposed to give workers to help end a dispute, that is, the ability to apply economic pressure;

“Whereas the use of scab labour contributes to higher-conflict picket lines, jeopardizes workplace safety, destabilizes normalized labour relations between workers and their employers and removes the employer incentive to negotiate and settle fair contracts; and

“Whereas strong and fair anti-scab legislation will help lead to shorter labour disputes, safer workplaces, and less hostile picket lines;

“Whereas similar legislation has been introduced in British Columbia and Quebec with no increases to the number of strike or lockout days;

“Whereas Ontario had anti-scab legislation under an NDP government, that was unfortunately ripped away from workers by the Harris Conservatives;

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

“To prohibit employers from using replacement labour for the duration of any legal strike or lockout;

“To prohibit employers from using both external and internal replacement workers;

“To include significant financial penalties for employers who defy the anti-scab legislation; and

“To support Ontario’s workers and pass anti-scab labour legislation, like the Ontario NDP Bill 90, Anti-Scab Labour Act, 2023.”

I support this petition. I’ll affix my signature and provide it to page Clara for the table.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate crimes and harassment are increasing across Ontario;

“Whereas drag artists have been specifically targeted for intimidation by anti-2SLGBTQIA+ extremists;

“Whereas drag performance is a liberating and empowering art form that allows diverse communities to see themselves represented and celebrated;

“Whereas drag artists, small businesses, and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities deserve to feel safe everywhere in Ontario;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to pass the Protecting 2SLGBTQIA+ Communities Act so that 2SLGBTQIA+ safety zones can deter bigoted harassment and an advisory committee can be struck to protect 2SLGBTQIA+ communities from hate crimes.”

I support this petition. I’ll affix my signature and provide it to page Owen for the table.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the use of replacement workers undermines workers’ collective power, unnecessarily prolongs labour disputes, and removes the essential power that the withdrawal of labour is supposed to give workers to help end a dispute, that is, the ability to apply economic pressure;

“Whereas the use of scab labour contributes to higher-conflict picket lines, jeopardizes workplace safety, destabilizes normalized labour relations between workers and their employers and removes the employer incentive to negotiate and settle fair contracts; and

“Whereas strong and fair anti-scab legislation will lead to shorter labour disputes, safer workplaces, and less hostile picket lines;

“Whereas similar legislation has been introduced in British Columbia and Quebec with no increases to the number of strike or lockout days;

“Whereas Ontario had anti-scab legislation under an NDP government, that was unfortunately ripped away from workers by the Harris Conservatives;

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

“To prohibit employers from using replacement labour for the duration of any legal strike or lockout;

“To prohibit employers from using both external and internal replacement workers;

“To include significant financial penalties for employers who defy the anti-scab legislation; and

“To support Ontario’s workers and pass anti-scab labour legislation, like the Ontario NDP Bill 90, Anti-Scab Labour Act, 2023.”

I support this petition, will affix my signature and provide it to page Trent for the table.

I rise to support this motion and the House’s condemnation of the ongoing and reprehensible attacks being carried out against the people of Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas.

To my friends in the Palestinian community, I stand with you and your concern for those loved ones who are back in Gaza who are being used as human shields by these terrorists.

As of today, over 1,400 Israelis lie dead at the hands of Hamas. An additional 3,400 have been injured. Hamas’ terrorist attack on October 7 resulted in the highest number of Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust. Among those killed are six Canadians: 22-year-old Shir Georgy, who was killed while enjoying a music festival; 33-year-old Adi Vital-Kaploun, who has been described by her family as a beautiful woman who brought love and lightness to the people around her; 22-year-old Ben Mizrachi, described by his teachers as being a kind, wonderful and community-minded young man who had a positive influence on everyone around him; 33-year-old Alexandre Look, who was described as a hero wanting to protect the people he was with, by his father; 21-year-old Netta Epstein, who jumped on a grenade to save the life of his fiancée; and Tiferet Lapidot, a brilliant young woman who had just celebrated her 23rd birthday.

We will keep them in our prayers, and we will not let their names or their stories be forgotten.

Speaker, in 2019, I supported the passage of an Act to combat antisemitism, and I thank my colleague from Eglinton–Lawrence for putting forward that legislation with me. This act utilizes the working definition of anti-Semitism and the list of illustrated examples adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance plenary on May 26, 2016. Jewish Ontarians have been protected from discrimination and hate amounting to anti-Semitism under this act.

I remember, Speaker, the first time I got to go to a Righteous Among the Nations ceremony at the Jewish consulate here in Toronto. They were honouring a Dutch family, teachers who hid Jewish people in the Second World War. Their daughter was there to accept the award on behalf of her parents, who had passed away. I remember people asking me, “Why did you bring forward this anti-Semitism act? You don’t have a large Jewish community in your riding. You are not Jewish yourself,” and I can’t help but think of the words of the daughter of these brave Dutch people who hid Jews. She said, “You know, it’s interesting. We never talked with my parents about why they did what they did. They never talked about it with their friends, why they did what they did. They just did it because it was the right thing to do.” And we stand here today with this motion in front of us because it is the right thing to do.

Here today, I pledge once again to stand with Jewish Ontarians, many of whom are grieving the losses of friends and family in Israel, and condemn the heinous crimes Hamas has carried out against Israel and the anti-Semitic rhetoric of those who support Hamas’s frenzied evil.

I spoke to a Jewish friend last week. She told me, though tears, that they had come to her cousin’s school with knives. That happens here. We cannot allow that to happen under our watch. I just listened to the Minister of Colleges and Universities call out names, and have them recorded in this House, of people who stand for this kind of terror in this province. That is unacceptable. We cannot allow that to happen in our nation and in this province.

Canada is home to the third-largest Jewish population outside of Israel, and the majority of these Canadian Jews live in Ontario. Over the course of the last week, Jewish Ontarians have shown remarkable resilience in the face of various anti-Semitic threats directed towards Jewish schools, including hate-fuelled threats made to Jewish high school students at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto. There have also been blatant displays of support for terrorists in our province, as some demonstrators flew both Hamas and Taliban flags at a protest in Mississauga this past week.

By condemning Hamas, our government will make it clear to Ontarians, especially Jewish Ontarians, that we unequivocally support Israel, rebuke the actions of terrorists and stand against anti-Semitism. To that end, there are those who have branded Hamas as freedom fighters or revolutionaries. Freedom fighters do not enter kibbutz after kibbutz, opening fire indiscriminately on civilians. Freedom fighters do not intentionally target civilians at music festivals. Revolutionaries do not rape innocent mothers and daughters, and revolutionaries do not kill innocent babies and children too young to even comprehend the fervid hatred that is being exacted upon them. These are the actions of terrorists, and we must not allow moral equivalences to be made between terrorists who descend on music festivals full of innocent young people with the intent to rape and kill as many Jews as possible, as Hamas has done, and the IDF soldiers who have retaliated against Hamas combatants who used civilian lives as shields and whose terrorist base of operations was once located underneath a hospital.

To compound their misery, those in Gaza are facing a water crisis in addition to the violence of war. Yet, in shocking video released by Hamas themselves, Hamas soldiers can be seen digging up water pipes in Gaza, which were then re-lathed and machined into missiles to fire at Israel.

If there was even a shred of doubt left in the mind of those still defending the barbaric actions of Hamas, recent photos have shown Hamas soldiers blocking the evacuation of Gaza residents from the conflict zone. The only people twisted enough to trap the people they claim to represent in what is becoming an inhospitable stretch of rubble can be described only as terrorists, and their actions hurt both Israelis and Palestinians alike.

We cannot negotiate or come to a peaceful resolution with terrorists. War is ugly and must be avoided at all costs. However, when a sovereign state is faced with an existential terrorist threat, defensive measures must be taken.

If Hamas stopped fighting today and released the Israeli hostages they still hold, peace could return immediately. In contrast, if Israel stopped fighting, Hamas would continue to rape, murder and torture every Israeli until the state of Israel and every Jew within it was totally and violently destroyed. Every drop of blood spilled needlessly in Gaza, both Israeli and Palestinian, is on the hands of Hamas. It is Israel’s inalienable right as a legitimate and sovereign state to protect its people and its border.

Israel and Canada have long stood as partners on the world stage. Our friendship with the Israeli people is rooted in our shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. It is the duty of our government to condemn Hamas’ attempts to erode these values and support Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law and in Gaza.

While the situation in Gaza remains chaotic and shrouded by the fog of war, three things are clear:

—Hamas is a terrorist organization and must be condemned;

—anti-Semitism has no place in Ontario or anywhere; and

—I and we stand with the sovereign state of Israel and recognize its inalienable right to defend itself and its people against this horrific violence.

Madam Speaker, I will continue to pray for peace.