For Immediate Release
November 27, 2006
Two days to go, no answers from Attorney General in sight
(Queen’s Park) – Just over 48 hours remain until the McGuinty Government’s closure motion will end debate on Bill 107, their controversial human rights legislation. Despite continual requests from Christine Elliott, Progressive Conservative M.P.P. for Whitby-Ajax and Attorney General Critic, Minister Bryant refuses to come forward with his plan to fund the linchpin of his proposed system, the ‘legal support centre’.
“In sidestepping my question last week with respect to funding your legal support centre, you stated that recent technical briefings held by your Ministry Staff allowed you to draw on the expertise of different individuals to presumably devise a funding plan,” said Elliott in the Legislature today. “Minister, I received a copy of a letter to you, dated November 23, 2006, from Elisabeth Bruckmann, [a] staff lawyer from Parkdale Community Legal Services…In that letter she expressed her ‘dismay’ at your response that these technical briefings presented any opportunity for consultation, and continues on to say, and I quote, ‘I would ask that you refrain from further allegations that you have held broad consultations on this Bill when you have not. I would specifically ask that you not suggest that I was included in a consultation with your staff when you ought to know that was not the case.’”
Hundreds of individuals and groups have made requests to be consulted on this piece of legislation, and despite repeated commitments by the Attorney General to hold extensive public hearings, their calls to cancel the closure motion have gone unheeded. The McGuinty Government has turned its back on the most vulnerable people of Ontario with this latest broken promise.
“Minister, you clearly have no plan for this legal support centre, so there’s no big hurry here. Why then, do you refuse to accept our Leader John Tory’s compromise to vote on this Bill first thing in the spring in exchange for full and meaningful consultation now?”
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For more information contact:
Christine Elliott, M.P.P
Whitby-Ajax
416.325.1331 |
