 Therefore, it's time for members' statements. The Member for Oxford. Mr. Speaker, the Robert School for the Deaf in London provides life-changing support for kids who are deaf or hard of hearing. One of those students is a four-year-old girl named Jaya who lives in my riding of Oxford. I've met with her mother who talked about the difference the school has made for Jaya and the difference the support has made to their family. She says the Deaf school is the student's lifeline to the language, education and identity. Since Jaya has attended the Robert School for the Deaf, she has started making eye contact. Deaf role models are showing her that she is not alone and she can now communicate with her parents. But she's only four and she needs the school for many years to come. And it's the only way she will get the critical language skills that she needs. Her mother has written to the Minister of Education the Premier begging them to keep the school open and yet she's been left to live in fear. She's here today along with hundreds of parents asking the government to not close down these life-changing schools. But this morning the Minister of Education once again refused to commit that the robots and these essential schools will stay open. I'm asking the government to give these students like Jaya a chance to succeed. And I'm asking them to end the fear for these families and commit that robots school for Deaf and the other provincial schools will stay open in the long term, Mr. Speaker. And thank you very much for the opportunity to present this statement. Thank you. Further member statements to the member from Essex? Thank you very much, Speaker. As always, it gives me great pleasure to rise in the legislature to recognize good people doing great things in my riding. Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Essex County Agricultural Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies and to congratulate the three inductees for 2006. Diane Calantoneo, Mary Jane LaFrancoise and Glenn Weitz now have a place among the giants of farming in Essex County. Mary Jane LaFrancoise lived on the family farm on the Arner Townline. She obtained a BA and teaching certificate. She was the former vice president of the Essex County Federation of Agriculture, the former provincial director of the Federation of Agriculture. She's been involved in the Anderton Women's Institute for quite some time. Mary Jane has always been active with the Farm Safety Association and is passionately advocated for safer farm practices. Glenn Weitz purchased his farm in 1956. He's raised hogs, grown wheat, soybeans, corn, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Pioneered conservation techniques like low till and no till. Along with his wife, Marilyn, they have five children and nine grandchildren. They've served on numerous boards and committees. And Glenn has been awarded the Soil Conservation Award and the Bicentennial Certificate of Merit from the province and numerous others. Speaker, and Diane Calantoneo grew up on the family farm in Lakeshore, where she became a third generation farmer. She attended university and teachers college. She was a past president of her local's women's institute. And she was involved in the 4-H for over 30 years. Diane was not able to attend the ceremonies due to health issues. We wish her all the best and thank all this year's recipients and inductees. All the very best and thank them for their contribution to agriculture. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you for their member statements, the member from Scarborough Asian Court. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This year is the 10th anniversary reading circle, a community-based reading program I found in my writing of Scarborough Asian Court when I was a TDSB trustee. Since the beginning, this reading program has been held at the Bridewood Public Library for 90 minutes every Saturday from October to May, approximately 40 children from Junior Kindergarten to grade five and 25 high school student volunteers participate. After reading one-on-one with their reading buddies, children do a range of activities including writing, arts and crafts, puzzles and games, thus giving the children opportunities to develop their own language and social skills. Reading circles supported by dedicated local youth from high schools, from TDSB and the Toronto Catholic District School Board. This program enables the youth volunteers to earn the community service hours, as well as acquire leadership, teamwork and organizational skills. Mr. Speaker, as a first-generation Chinese-Canadian, I know the importance of the Toronto Public Library in helping new Canadians, like my family, to acquire English language skills. Hence, I'm very pleased to see my weekly reading program grow year over year. On April 23rd, Reading Circle was celebrated its 10th anniversary at the Bridewood Public Library. And I want to thank all the children, parents, volunteers, local high schools, and the staff at the library for making this community reading program such a success. Together, we're giving new opportunities for children and youth of all ages to develop literacy skills and the joy of reading. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for your member statements. The member from Stormont-Bundes and South Glendon-Gerry. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, last month, Canadians had the opportunity to recall the importance of safety in our agricultural industry. Farms and the agriculture industry are the bedrock of our prosperity. The sector drives innovation, productivity, and employment with unyielding focus on quality. The agri-food sector is the largest employer in Ontario, providing highly skilled, well-paid, and stable jobs across the province. Farming, unfortunately, remains the riskiest professions in Canada. Through better technologies and smart regulations, we have made great progress. However, much more needs to be done. My writing in Stormont-Bundes and South Glendon-Gerry is not immune to farm accidents. Over my lifetime, our family has been involved in numerous accidents causing serious injuries. I lost a sister, a neighbour, and a first cousin to farm accidents. More recently in late January, I lost a close friend to a farming accident. Alvin Reynolds, the former Mayor of North Dundas, who I had the privilege to sit with on County Council. Alvin was a dedicated community worker involved in many associations, including Dairy Farm with Ontario. And last month, tragedy struck our family again when my son-in-law, Rock, lost his father in another farm accident. Marcel Brunet recently retired, and just weeks after celebrating his 60th birthday, lost his life doing something he truly loved doing. Working with his son, Rock, on the farm, he was days off. He cut wood since he's days as young as a teenager. The accident, like most farm accidents, was just an accident. Marcel leaves a big hole in our family and in our community. He was a devoted volunteer in his parish and his community, serving in a number of committees. He was a go-to guy when his parishioners and his friends needed a hand or someone just to fill in. Speaker, as you can see, Agriculture Safety Week touches too many families in Ontario, and we need to change that. Thank you. Thank you. Remember from Kingston and the Islands. I'm delighted to rise in the House today to acknowledge Hotel Dew Hospital's Child Development Centre 20th Annual Fundraising Run this past weekend in my riding of Kingston and the Islands. This event holds a special place in my heart. It is an event that truly does recharge my spirit and feed my soul, as I'm sure it does for the many people who come back year after year. Over 400 Kingstonians came out and helped raise more than $28,000 for CDC. Mr. Speaker, the Child Development Centre is one of 21 specialized centres in Ontario offering critical services to children and youth who have physical, neurological, or developmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy. For 42 years, the Centre's physiotherapists, occupational and speech therapists, dieticians, doctors, counselors and volunteers have provided outstanding service in our community. I would also like to give a shout out to a very special family, Mary, John and Brayden Young, who lost Sweet We Briley last fall. Mr. Speaker, Briley's face could light up any room, and this year her family gave away purple butterflies for children to wear, to honour her memory and to encourage others to engage in acts of kindness. I know that her spirit touched many at the CDC run as well as the participants in the race. Thank you as well to the excellent leadership of Director Margaret Van Beers for all your work to make this year's run a success, and of course every day of the year as well. Janessa, Brayden and Lachlan, you are fantastic ambassadors, by the way. Yassibou Koo, Miigwech, thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This morning I had the absolute honour to welcome the Mayor of Tel Aviv, his name is Ron Choudai, and he was here basically to promote Tel Aviv. Obviously he wants us all to come visit, but he was here more with a group from the Canadian Committee for the Tel Aviv Foundation. You can find out more information at Tel Aviv Foundation.org. The three women who came with him were Orpas Gibson, Margalit, Navan, Erin Batata, and they're all from the Toronto region. And basically what they are doing is they are promoting donations and investment and interest in what a vibrant place Tel Aviv is, and that their dedication is focused on education, social services and welfare and the arts and culture and sports and the environment and quality of life. And what the Mayor said that was so interesting is that 6% of the Tel Aviv budget goes to arts and culture, so imagine that Mr. Speaker. Tonight is the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee, CJ PAC as we commonly refer to it, around the political world in Toronto. And there's going to be a lot of young professionals there, as well as a lot of professionals. I'm hoping to see a lot of my friends from both sides of the room there celebrating the involvement of our Jewish youth and our Jewish young professionals in the political spectrum. So thank you again Mr. Speaker, and I'm glad that the Mayor is going to make the party as well, and now I'm going to hold him to it. Thank you. Thank you. Further member statements? The member from Burmese, Laura Walter. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today marks a very special occasion for the Sikh community. In general in South Asia, April in general, in this time period marks the harvest season of Basak or Basaki. But for the Sikh community specifically today, April 14th marks the celebration of Basaki which marks the creation of the Khalsa. Now Mr. Speaker, you're probably wondering what is the Khalsa? The Khalsa was created by the 10th Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Ji, before he installed the Guru Granthab as the final Guru of the Sikhs. Now Khalsa is defined as the sovereign for people who are free. And so today in fact is a celebration of our sovereignty, of the independent spirit of all people. And what the Khalsa was set to create was an order or a family that was committed to social justice. A family and an order that was committed to upholding principles and tenets that advanced equality and social justice. So some examples are there was a system of caste system which was oppressive. There were other ills in society like superstitions that kept people downtrodden, that kept people enslaved in their minds. And so the Khalsa was a way of uplifting people to achieve their own personal ambitions, their own personal potential. And to ensure that all society was able to achieve this potential for freedom, justice and equality. So today we celebrate, Basaki we celebrate the sovereignty in all of our souls and all of our spirits. And I enjoy, I ask all of us to join in the celebration, which is truly the celebration of the human spirit. Thank you so much. Thank you. The member Stephen, the member from Scarborough Southwest. Thank you Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to rise today and highlight the incredible transportation transformation that's underway in my riding of Scarborough Southwest. I've talked about the existence in Crosstown LRT with construction well underway at the west end of the city. The dream of improving and modernizing public transit in my riding is closer than ever to being realized. Of the 25 new stations along the line, Scarborough Southwest will be seeing seven new stations opening. Starting at O'Connor and running east all the way to Kennedy Station. This means that close to 30% of these new stations will be my riding. And I can't tell you how much I've received positive comments from my constituents. Our government here is taking action to improve our transit infrastructure in Toronto and in fact in all of Ontario. Speaker, Ontario's transportation infrastructure is absolutely vital to the strength, stability and success of our province. Public transit helps our workforce get to the office. It helps our students get to the classroom. It allows our seniors to train active and mobile in the later years. It helps businesses to flourish. It helps residents to get where they need to go, when they need to be there. And I look forward to following the progress of the Edmonton Crosstown LRT. Watching it as it continues to benefit the residents of businesses of Scarborough Southwest and well beyond in all of Ontario. In fact, thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Further member statements? The member from Mississauga Streetsville. Thank you very much Speaker. Japanese author Tamaki Matsuoka has written an important book about the Second World War's prolonged Sino-Japanese campaign. As importantly, Toronto Alpha, a largely Chinese group formed to document and spread the history of that long and brutal campaign, published the book called Torn Memories of Nanking. Author Matsuoka became a teacher in Japan in 1982 and began to look at the discrepancies between how history books in Japan and in the rest of the world treated the China-Japan campaign during World War II. In the late 1980s, Tamaki began to interview survivors and veterans of the battle for Nanking, now known as Nanjing. She wrote down first-hand accounts of Chinese survivors and Japanese soldiers who went on an extended killing spree of soldiers and civilians alike. It is a compelling story for its brutal matter of factness and its meticulous documentation. Often either denied or underplayed in Japan, Torn Memories of Nanking is a missing chapter in the documentation of World War II's longest campaign in which an estimated 25 million Chinese were killed. Particularly because its author is Japanese, this disturbing book shines new light into World War II's largest remaining dark historical corner. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you. I thank all members for their statements.