Muzzling Randy Hillier

Ontario MPP could be barred from participating in the legislature | CTV News - Canadian Press:

February 22, 2022 - "Ontario's legislature has unanimously passed a motion authorizing the Speaker to bar an independent member from eastern Ontario from participating in the chamber. A motion moved by Government House Leader Paul Calandra says the house expresses its disapproval of Randy Hillier's 'continued disreputable conduct.' It calls on him to apologize for what Calandra called racist and discriminatory statements about federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, and for social media posts that Calandra says were insinuating a call to violence. The motion says the Speaker is authorized to not recognize Hillier in the legislature until the member for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston publishes written apologies and the Speaker is satisfied of their sincerity."
Read more: https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-mpp-could-be-barred-from-participating-in-the-legislature-1.5791584

SELICK: The railroading of Randy Hillier | Western Standard - Karen Selick: 

March 8, 2022 - "This proceeding shows a blatant disregard for the principles of fundamental justice. Calandra presented no evidence in support of his allegations. He never even specified the words he alleged to be racist, discriminatory, or an incitement to violence. He gave no opportunity to the accused to refute them. Hillier was not in attendance that day and had been given no advance notice that his conduct would be the subject of any motion. Much to their discredit, no member of the House then present asked any questions, and no debate was held.

"Note that in order to be released from the penalties laid upon him in this charade, Hillier would first have to admit his guilt by writing letters of apology. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be allowed to make a peep in the House. What if the allegations made against him weren’t true in the first place? This vicious circle would demand he confess to something he hadn’t done in order to have even the opportunity to deny having done them....

"And was the vote really unanimous? Did all 124 members of the House of all political stripes really sit there and vote in favour of compelling forced expression, a clear breach of Hillier’s Charter right to freedom of speech? Definitely not. For starters, Ontario MPPs are taking turns being present in 'cohorts' due to 'social distancing' requirements. At most, only half could have been present.... 

"Furthermore, it turns out a quorum in the Ontario legislature consists of the speaker plus only 11 other members. Procedurally, if nobody speaks up to voice any objection to a motion, the speaker is entitled to say it passed 'unanimously.' Abstentions are not counted. It’s entirely possible the only people who passed this so-called unanimous motion might have been Calandra, the speaker, and 10 other MPPs who might well have been sleeping or doing crossword puzzles....

"To the best of my knowledge, only one MPP (Belinda Karahalios) has come forward to say she didn’t vote to ban Randy Hillier from the House. Her husband Jim Karahalios tweeted that Calandra had actually waited until she had left the House before bringing his motion.

"Why has nobody raised this in the moribund media? Why is the world left believing that Hillier is universally condemned by his colleagues when the truth may well be that many of them secretly admire him and wish they had as much backbone?... Calandra succeeded in silencing a dissenting voice without having to prove he ever did anything wrong. I e-mailed Calandra’s office to see if I could interview him for this article, but he did not respond.

"Full disclosure: I’ve known Randy Hillier for at least 20 years, since the days when he headed up the Ontario Landowners Association and invited me to speak at conferences about property rights. I consider him one of Canada’s few politicians with any integrity, and I’m very sorry he made the decision not to stand for re-election in Ontario this year. Sadly, the unjust treatment he received at the hands of the Ontario legislature demonstrates what anyone else who might dare to thwart the establishment can expect."
Read more: https://westernstandardonline.com/2022/03/selick-the-railroading-of-randy-hillier/

Randy Hillier on Covid pandemic in autumn 2020: