The Speaker of the House, Ted Arnott, announced Monday morning a reduction in the ban on wearing this traditional Arab garment, which has become an emblem for Palestine.
Visitors and employees who wear keffiyeh will now once again be allowed to enter the Legislative Assembly, but they will have to remove it to enter the chamber.
Ted Arnott maintains that the keffiyeh is a political symbol, and that it cannot be allowed in this room where debates are held and where the laws of the province are written.
MPs Sarah Jama, Joel Harden and Krystin Wong-Tam defied the ban on wearing keffiyehs at Queen’s Park on Monday. (Émilie Gougeon-Pelletier/Le Droit)
“I return to an explanation of our long-standing practice, dating back decades, that clothing or accessories, including t-shirts, jerseys, scarves, ribbons and pins, which in the opinion of the Presidency, are used to make a deliberate statement cannot be brought to the House unless there is unanimous consent of the House to permit members to do so,” the Speaker said.
Ted Arnott admitted that the subject has “unfortunately become politicized” and that it has “fostered division and discord, both within this House and in our communities across the province.”
Disobedience
Shortly after the speaker’s statement, NDP MPs Joel Harden and Kristyn Wong-Tam donned kaffiyehs and left the legislative chamber after receiving a warning from Mr. Arnott.
Independent MP Sarah Jama walked out along with MPs Harden and Wong-Tam, after being expelled from the legislature for refusing to adhere to rules imposed by Mr Arnott.
“The irony is that moments before we were kicked out of the room, we had just held a moment of silence regarding the Holocaust. While we take time to recognize the genocides of the past, we struggle to recognize the genocides of the present,” lamented MP Jama.
Krystin Wong-Tam pointed out the stickers representing the LGBTQ community on her laptop, always in plain view, in the room.
Kristyn Wong-Tam defied a ban on wearing a keffiyeh at Queen’s Park on Monday. (Émilie Gougeon-Pelletier/Émilie Gougeon-Pelletier)
“So the rules are applied very unevenly as to what is restricted and what is not,” noted Krystin Wong-Tam.
The MP for Ottawa Centre, Joel Harden, considers it unfair that “we are telling Arab and Muslim Palestinians that they must leave their culture at the door.”
Joel Harden defied the ban on wearing a keffiyeh at Queen’s Park on Monday. (Émilie Gougeon-Pelletier/Le Droit)
Their leader, Marit Stiles, called it “a step in the right direction” in allowing members of the public and employees to wear keffiyehs outside of the chamber.
Before the elected officials returned to Queen’s Park on Monday, she said she was going to force a recorded vote on the issue during the next Opposition Day, but now that the keffiyeh is once again allowed in the building, “it We will have to study the options,” she stressed.
Disagreement
Leaders of every political party in Ontario disagree with the keffiyeh ban at Queen’s Park, including Premier Doug Ford.
However, some members of the Progressive Conservative caucus opposed the prime minister and worked to ensure the ban stood.
Doug Ford has allowed members of his caucus to vote freely when the issue has come up for a vote, more than once in recent weeks.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford. (Simon Séguin-Bertrand/Archives Le Droit)
On Monday, he made it known that this was now a decision that was in the hands of the president, and that he would not intervene in this matter.
“I expressed my opinion, I was quite clear, it’s the legislature, we must respect the president,” he said in the press scrum. There’s nothing I can do to change the legislature.”
