(Toronto) The Speaker of the Ontario Legislative Assembly announced Monday that politicians, staff and visitors to Queen’s Park will be allowed to enter the building wearing a keffiyeh, but he maintains the ban on this scarf inside the House.
Posted at 2:23 p.m.
Sarah Jama, who sits as an independent after being expelled from the NDP caucus last year, wore a keffiyeh at the start of question period in the House on Monday, in defiance of the speaker’s ban. She was then asked to leave the Chamber.
NDP MPs Joel Harden and Kristyn Wong-Tam, who also wore headscarves, also left the House in solidarity with Mr.me Jama.
The keffiyeh is a black and white checkered scarf typically worn in Arab cultures and which now symbolizes solidarity with the Palestinian people. Legislative Speaker Ted Arnott previously concluded that the keffiyeh constituted an ostentatious political gesture, which is against the legislature’s regulations.
But Mr Arnott said on Monday that since his initial decision, the issue had become politicized and divisive. This is why, before the start of question period on Monday, the Speaker announced that the ban would not apply to people entering the building, but only inside the House.
Mr. Arnott stressed that if an MP requests and obtains unanimous consent from all MPs to wear a keffiyeh in the Legislative Assembly, such wearing will be permitted.
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