It’s my pleasure to present a petition on behalf of the people of Wilmot, who are very upset, for good reason, that their prime agricultural land is being expropriated without transparency or without due process.

It reads, “Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately pause all plans to expropriate and rezone lands in Wilmot—

People in Wilmot are very angry for good reason. They are expropriating their land without good cause, without good rationale. I support the people of Wilmot and sustainable farming practices in the province of Ontario.

I always enjoy presenting petitions and sharing the voices and concerns of people across the province. In this case, I received a letter explaining that the petition that I am presenting to the House has 985 signatures, and that’s in addition to the almost 7,000 that they have submitted before on an issue close to my heart, in support of Bill 15, which is the Fairness for Road Users Act.

These folks have highlighted that they would seek stiffer penalties for drivers involved in fatal accidents where people were killed or catastrophically injured. Of course, I have stood by bikers’ rights organizations and others, especially those road safety advocates, in moving this bill forward. It is my bill. I support them and certainly we want this government to do right by these folks.

I support this petition, will affix my signature and send it to the table with page Aislyn.

This petition is in support of a Toronto local hip-hop artist and battle rap pioneer, Bishop Brigante, who at 45 was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He wants to lower the minimum age for colonoscopies from 50 to 30 years of age, so we can have quicker detection. He’s trying to raise public awareness around colorectal cancer. The current age, for anyone who doesn’t know, for an asymptomatic cancer screening is 50, and we want to see that age lowered so we can help save lives.

There are many people in the arts community, in the film and TV community and, of course, in the health community who are speaking out about this. Bishop, Jully Black and many other artists are coming out in large numbers. I just want to tell them thank you and also say that I agree and support this petition and I’ll be affixing my signature to it.

It is my honour to present the following petition entitled “Support the Gender Affirming Health Care Act.” Within the petition, it points out that two-spirit, transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and intersex communities have a great deal of difficulty when it comes to receiving the health care that they need in Ontario. Within Ontario, people should not have to fight for a health care that understands and recognizes their identity.

So this petition is to pass the gender-affirming health care act, something that I believe everyone, if they’re listening to their conscience, should pass, should support, and I hope that this government will finally decide to listen to its conscience once and for all.

I support this and will deliver it with page Armaan to the Clerks.

It is my distinct pleasure to present a petition that I’m not allowed read but focuses on the crisis in mental health across this province, in particular the experience of the Roth family, where they were denied access and timely care and their daughter Kaitlyn died by suicide. We can do better in the province of Ontario. I fully support the alternative destination locations for care instead of emergency rooms.

With that, I’ll be affixing my signature to the petition that I cannot read.

Resuming the debate adjourned on April 11, 2024, on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 185, An Act to amend various Acts / Projet de loi 185, Loi modifiant diverses lois.