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Ontario NDP Leader and MPP Marit Stiles during Question Period in May, 2025. Stiles was ejected by the Speaker on Wednesday after asking questions about the $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles was ejected from the provincial legislature on Wednesday after refusing to withdraw her assertion that Premier Doug Ford leads a “corrupt government” for its handling of a $2.5-billion fund for training programs.
In Question Period at Queen’s Park, Ms. Stiles was asking about Ontario’s Skills Development Fund, which has been at the centre of a month-long controversy over revelations that less-qualified organizations received millions of dollars in grants, some after their leadership made large donations to the governing Progressive Conservatives or hired lobbyists with connections to the government.
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Under the legislature’s rules, MPPs cannot accuse other members of lying or use other language deemed unparliamentary. Usually, when Speaker Donna Skelly intervenes, an MPP agrees to withdraw their offending comments. But on Wednesday, Ms. Stiles refused and was escorted out of the chamber by the Sergeant-at-Arms. She will not be allowed to return until Thursday. She was expected to take questions from reporters around midday Wednesday.
While rare, Opposition leaders and MPPs have been tossed out before for refusing to withdraw comments, usually as a tactic to protest a government move. In November, 2022, during debate on the Ford government’s use of the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to strip an education union of the right to strike, interim NDP leader Peter Tabuns and several NDP MPPs refused to withdraw remarks and were ejected.
