Jan 26, 2009
KAREN HOWLETT
Globe and Mail Update
January 26, 2009 at 1:25 PM EST
The Ontario New Democratic Party put the government on notice that it will do everything in its power to delay back-to-work legislation to end the strike at York University.
New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton told reporters on Monday that he won't consent to a request by the governing Liberals to have the legislature sit until midnight tonight, so that the legislation can be passed into law.
?I'm not prepared to participate in the McGuinty Government's kangaroo court process,? Mr. Hampton told reporters following a raucous Question Period.
He accused the government of trying to sweep under the carpet its own ?sorry? record on funding universities by trying to force an end to the strike, now in its 12th week. Ontario ranks last in all of Canada on university funding, he said.
Deputy Premier George Smitherman said during Question Period that Mr. Hampton stands in the way as the ?last remaining barrier? to getting 50,000 students back into the classroom.
?We seek to have a legislature that acts decisively, and Mr. Hampton seeks to belabour this point, to stretch things out and to continue to put in peril the learning opportunities for students,? Mr. Smitherman told reporters.
Second-reading debate on the back-to-work legislation is set to begin Monday afternoon. The New Democrats plan to make full use of the rules to hold up the legislation. All 10 members of the NDP caucus plan to speak during the 6.5 hours allocated for second-reading debate. Mr. Hampton will begin by speaking for a full hour. The other nine caucus members will each speak for 20 minutes, bringing the party's total speaking time to four hours.
Three Progressive Conservative MPPs plan to speak for 20 minutes each. At the conclusion of the 6.5 hours, the government can introduce a time-allocation motion to limit further debate.
The Tories fully support the government's back-to-work legislation. But they have criticized the government for not stepping in sooner. Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman said in Question Period that the government should have intervened as early as last November, when it was already apparent that management and the union were deadlocked.
?Did you figure students hadn't suffered enough by that point,? he said.