Brampton protest and petition take aim at Premier Ford’s record on transparency, education and more

Brampton will see yet another protest amid a weekend of Ontario-wide demonstrations as a petition calling out decisions by Premier Doug Ford’s government from the Greenbelt scandal and the Ontario Place debacle to speed cameras, education, transparency and more.

This Saturday will mark more “Fight Ford” protests that have been taking place for months across the province, including an event planned outside Brampton City Hall.

The demonstrations are a running campaign of activism against Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario PC Party, and organizers have released a petition calling out what it calls the government’s “increased centralization of provincial decision making, reduced public participation, and weakened independent oversight in planning, environmental protection, transparency, education governance, and community decision making.”

The petition points to grievances like recent conservation authority reforms, changes to the Endangered Species Act, the province’s plans for Billy Bishop Airport, the Greenbelt scandal and the Ontario Science Centre redevelopment, among many other issues.

A protest held last month was held to highlight how all of Brampton’s MPPs voted against a Bill 113 – a piece of legislation put forward by the NDP and supported by the Liberals and Greens which would have removed a portion of the harmonized sales tax on some food items and non-alcoholic beverages.

Brampton-Centre MPP Charmaine Williams, Brampton-West MPP Amarjot Sandhu, Brampton-North MPP Graham McGregor and Brampton-East MPP Hardeep Singh Grewal all voted “nay” to the bill along with the entire PC caucus – a move NDP leader Marit Stiles called “shameful.”

Protesters also held demonstrations in Brampton in March and April, with concerns including doing away with rent control for new unit builds in 2018, recent changes to OSAP that will lean more heavily on loans as opposed to grants, a province-wide ban on automated speed enforcement cameras, and healthcare under-funding.

Dozens of protesters are again expected to take part in Brampton’s demonstration on Saturday, with dozens of events across Ontario. The Brampton protest is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. For more information on the events and the petition, click here.