Speaker, I rise today as a member of the official opposition and as the first queer Black person to be elected to the Ontario Legislature. But make no mistake: I stand on the shoulders of former honourable members like Zanana Akande, Lincoln Alexander and Alvin Curling, to name a few.

The government has done a good job talking about Black history, so I’m going to talk about Black present and future.

Black communities, along with Indigenous and racialized communities, have been on the front lines of this most recent health care crisis. And I want everyone in Ontario to be reminded that this government has, frankly, disrespected predominantly Black women—the PSWs, the nurses, the very front-line health care workers this government has refused to respect, protect and pay what they’re worth, through their callous Bill 124.

Black History Month is an opportunity for this government to make systemic changes to allow for social, cultural and economic progress of Black folks here in Ontario, and it cannot stop after February. Doing right by Black folks in Ontario means listening to Black health leaders and recognizing anti-Black racism as a public health crisis—recognize the physical and mental health toll of racism, and legislate policies that create the social and material conditions we need to thrive. It means ensuring the Anti-Racism Directorate is fully funded and collects and transparently shares necessary data to make our lives better. It means overhauling our “justice system” that continues to fail Black Ontarians, and overhauling broken accountability infrastructures like the SIU to finally start addressing anti-Black racism.

I encourage every person in this House to read the report titled Anti-Black Racism in the Criminal Justice System—in policing, the courts, incarceration, and criminal records. I thank the John Howard Society in my riding for their leadership and their scholarship on this and so much more.

Speaker, February is Black History Month, but in this position, we must also take account of Black lives now and what we can do to make them better. It means ensuring Black small business owners and entrepreneurs like my folks in Little Jamaica have meaningful access to financial support and aren’t consistently and disproportionately hit with anti-Black racism when trying to secure capital. It means taking real action to address anti-Black racism in education by developing and implementing mandatory Afrocentric curriculum across Ontario schools—a call me and the member for Kitchener Centre, the Ontario Black History Society and local activists like D. Tyler Robinson have long called for.

I want to thank People for Education, also from my home community, for their leadership. They recently published A Progress Report on Anti-Racism Policy Across Canada. Some key findings:

—64% of Ontario schools reported that their school boards collect race-based and/or demographic student data; 25% were unsure; 7% ain’t collecting anything;

—94% of Ontario’s schools reported providing PD specific to anti-racism and equity, but only 37% reported partnering with community-based orgs in their anti-racism and equity work;

—while 73% of schools reported focusing on anti-racism and equity in their school improvement plan, 26% of school board websites did not mention racism in their equity policies, and only 28% of school boards had an anti-racism policy, strategy or approach; and

—87% Ontario principals identified their racial background as white.

Speaker, children cannot be what they do not see. They need to be reflected in their curriculum, in the caring adults who work in their classrooms, and in the adult leaders in our schools.

These are just a few of the many ways that the government could actually invest in Black lives and legislate liberation, as opposed to oppression on a day-to-day basis—which often happens here in the Legislature.

Finally, I just want to say that schools need to be a place of joy. They need to be a place of self-esteem and confidence-building for all children, including Black students. That means ensuring kids are seeing themselves, ensuring kids are being celebrated, and ensuring, as I said before, that their curriculum is seen and heard.

Back to the Premier: Toronto elected 25 city councillors, but under Bill 39 only eight plus the mayor will make decisions, effectively silencing 17 councillors and the communities they represent.

Toronto’s council is the most diverse in its history, with 27% of councillors being racialized. This is a step in the right direction but still a far cry from Toronto’s full diversity, where 55% of folks here are visibly racialized. But now, because of the Premier’s secret deal with Mayor Tory, their voices would be silenced through this bill’s minority rule. When progressive women and BIPOC city councillors achieve historic elections in city council, the government changes the rules and strips them and the voters who elected them of their power.

Will this government withdraw their dangerous, undemocratic and inequitable Bill 39 and actually allow racialized Torontonians—all Torontonians—to have power on city council with the councillors they elected?

Interjections.