Hamilton MPP Sarah Jama was censured by the Ontario Legislature and removed from the NDP caucus on Oct. 23 following remarks the first-time legislator made about the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel on social media.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the expulsion follows the MPP taking a series of “unilateral” actions.
Three days after Hamas terrorists attacked civilians in Israel and the latter declared war, Ms. Jama published a
statement saying the violence is “rooted” in colonialism and “occupation.”
“I call for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation. We must look to the solution to this endless cycle of death and destruction: end all occupation of Palestinian land and end apartheid,” Ms. Jama said.
Ms. Stiles asked Ms. Jama to retract her statement, and while Ms. Jama issued an
apology, she didn’t retract her previous comments.
“I heard many voices yesterday raising concerns about my post. I hear them—and above all, I understand the pain that many Jewish and Israeli Canadians, including my own constituents, must be feeling. I apologize,” she
said.
“To be clear, I unequivocally condemn terrorism by Hamas on thousands of Israeli civilians. I also believe that Israel’s bombardment and siege on civilians in Gaza, as was also noted by the United Nations, is wrong.”
Her original comments were “pinned” to the top of Ms. Jama’s social media feed on X, above the apology of Oct. 12.
On Oct. 15, Ms. Jama
reposted comments from another user that said, “Many of us are disoriented by the garish spectacle of western govts’ desperate political signalling in support of genocide.”
Ms. Jama also
posted a statement calling for an ending to “all occupation of Palestinian land” without mentioning the casualties that resulted from the surprise Hamas attack on Israel. She said that people were “seeing this definition of apartheid in real time” in Gaza.
While Ms. Stiles originally defended Ms. Jama, she issued a
statement on Oct. 23 stating that Ms. Jama was removed from the NDP caucus as she undertook “a number of unilateral actions that have undermined our collective work and broken the trust of her colleagues.”
Ms. Stiles said the NDP caucus has “room for different viewpoints, even dissenting ones,” but that was based on trust and teamwork. She said that while she and Ms. Jama had initially reached an agreement for the MPP to stay in caucus, that was if they worked together “in good faith with no surprises.”
Ms. Stiles alleged that some of Ms. Jama’s actions have contributed to “unsafe work environments for staff,” which resulted in the decision to dump Ms. Jama from the party.
Ms. Jama did not respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment by press time. She now sits in the legislature as an Independent MPP.
Censure
The motion for the legislature to censure Ms. Jama was put forward by the governing Progressive Conservatives.PC MPP and Housing Minister Paul Calandra put forward the
censure motion, which would allow the House speaker to “not recognize the Member for Hamilton Centre in the House until the Member retracts and deletes her statements on social media and makes an apology in her place in the House.”
Mr. Calandra’s motion called Ms. Jama’s conduct “disreputable,” and “antisemitic.” He
criticized the pinning of her statement as “a clear act of defiance” as MPPs began discussing the motion to censure Ms. Jama.
The motion also “demands the Member desist from further conduct that is inappropriate and unbecoming of a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.”
The motion, which was opposed by the NDP, passed with a
vote of 63–23.
Tara MacIsaac and Chandra Philip contributed to this report.
