 It is now time for members' statements. The member for Windsor West. Thank you, Speaker. In Windsor, one in four children live below the poverty line. Our downtown mission now serves an average of 726 hot meals per day, and 1,100 working poor people are forced to use their food bank every month. I know that Windsor is not the only municipality in Ontario that is struggling with these issues. And yet, just three months into their mandate, Premier Ford and his Conservative government have consistently attacked those most in need. One of their first moves was to slash social assistance rate increases by 50%. They're going to eliminate the minimum wage increase, and they cancelled the basic income pilot without a shred of evidence to support this decision. In fact, the evidence we do have shows that these programs are crucial to lifting people out of poverty. In a letter to Minister McLeod regarding the pilot project, the Windsor-Essex County Board of Health stated, �We strongly urge your government to reconsider this decision. Our position is based on extensive evidence that income instability reduces opportunities for health, social and economic prosperity. This Conservative government's priorities are completely backward. Even Ron Dunn, Executive Director of the Downtown Mission, said to me, and I quote, �Our Premier should be embarrassed that Bucca Beer was a priority, while our most vulnerable citizens are not cared for.� I agree with Ron, Speaker, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that this government is continually reminded that they have an obligation to actually help every person in this province, especially those living in poverty. Member statements? The Member for Whitby. Thank you, Speaker, and I am pleased to rise today to pay tribute to my friend and former colleague on Durham Regional Council, Joe Drum. Joe is retiring from public service after 41 distinguished years serving his constituents. Speaker has been a truly amazing career, and it is difficult to imagine Whitby without his leadership on so many local issues. In total, Joe has been elected 14 times, worked under six different mayors, and sat on countless committees at both the town and regional levels. Speaker, Joe has been a dedicated representative, winning over residents with his unique ability to balance a hard-nosed approach with a light-hearted Irish charm. Whitby Mayor Don Mitchell, in reflecting on Joe's career, said, �He has earned the full trust and affection of our residents, staff, and Council call leaks through his integrity, work ethic, and humor.� And so, Speaker, to Joe Drum, I say thank you. Thank you, Joe, for your dedication and hard work, my friend. You are and remain an inspiration to so many in the town of Whitby. God bless, Joe Drum. Member statements? The Member for Ottawa Centre. Thank you, Speaker. Tomorrow, high school students are organizing a coordinated provincial walkout to protest this government's decision to roll back modern sexual health education. They also oppose this government's decision to stop the TRC curriculum writing sessions for public elementary and secondary schools. As the MPP for Ottawa Centre, I have two messages for these students. First, thank you for supporting acceptance and inclusion in our schools. Second, if you require a supporting letter for your absence from class, please contact our constituency office and we will note your walkout participation is an act of fulfilling volunteer hours with your MPP. We love you to continue volunteering with us. We think democracy isn't something that happens once every four years. Democracy is about ensuring public officials are held to account all the time and ensuring people in my profession make the right choices. My friends in government may claim your walkout is unruly and contemptuous of parents. As a parent of two young children myself, I disagree. What's contemptuous is denying our kids an education that's queer and transaffirming. What's contemptuous is failing to honour our treaty obligations with Indigenous peoples. What's contemptuous is not teaching young men at a young age the value of consent culture and about healthy relationships. The students walking out tomorrow are teaching us a lesson. From the bottom of my heart, I thank them for their leadership. Thank you very much. Member Statements. Member for Richmond Hill. Mr. Speaker, I agree with Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services that there is no place for racism in our great province. We need to take this a step further and we also do a lot of things to support this. We are doing this to respect each other's culture. We see that when we participate in different events in our community and also hosting different events among different cultural groups, we are really supporting this, especially in the riding of Richmond Hill, we have 57.4% are immigrants. My riding also cover a part of Markham, which is actually Canada's most diverse community where more than 42.3% are visible minorities. I am here to have ... I would like to do a lot of things to support this and make this a strong community. We see that when we respect each other's culture and attend each other event, we will have just recently celebrated the Rosh Hashanah and attended the fun fairs hosted by the Muslim community. Last week, I attended the barbecue at the Islamic Community Center, having a fun time with them while answering the question on Queen's Park. Actually next ... Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Member Statements. Member for Brampton East. Mr. Speaker, there is a fable that when the sun was setting for the first time, light was decreasing and the signs of darkness were appearing. Darkness set its foot on the earth, but it is said, far away in some hut, one little lamp lifted its head. It proclaimed, I challenge the darkness. If nothing else, then at least around myself, I will not let it settle. Around myself, I will establish light. Watching that one lamp in other huts, other lamps arose, and the world was amazed that these lamps stopped darkness from expanding so that people could see. Mr. Speaker, these are the words of the late activist, just once in Kaldra. He challenged the darkness by uncovering the murder and disappearances of approximately 20,000 Sikhs throughout Punjab by the Indian state. He came to Canada to bring light to this injustice. On September 6, 1995, upon his return to India, he himself was picked up, disappeared and murdered by members of the state. His legacy lives on, and the spirit of just once in Kaldra and SAF, a human rights organisation, has released their database which documents the systemic, widespread and targeted killing of thousands of Sikhs conducted by the Indian state. In the month of September, Mr. Speaker, let us not only remember this great soul, but also let us commit to being that lamp that fearlessly challenges darkness and injustice in all of its forms. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Member for Scarborough-Gildwood. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to make a member statement. Scarborough-Gildwood is seeking unanimous consent of the House to make a member statement at this time. Agreed? Agreed. Member for Scarborough-Gildwood. I heard some noes. Member statements? Point of order. Point of order. The member for Timmons. I think what the member was trying to say was to switch her private members in the place of Mr. Gravel is what she was trying to do. You can ask again. I'm seeking unanimous consent to switch places with my colleague, Michael Gravel, to make a member statement. Agreed? Agreed. Member for Scarborough-Gildwood. Member for Scarborough-Gildwood. Thank you, Speaker, and thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of my constituents. On September the 10th, at the very start of the school year, I visited an amazing program in my riding, Systema Toronto. To meet with students and to find out how they are doing in this program, MP John McKay also joined this visit. We had a chance to talk with all the students and to find out how they are doing and how this program was benefiting them. One student said that it was helping her to focus more and to have discipline. And all of the students are actually doing better in school as a result of this program. But Speaker, I am concerned that the current government has actually pulled plan funding for Systema Toronto and so that this program will not benefit more students in need. Systema currently serves 250 students and their families in neighbourhoods with some of Toronto's highest child poverty rates, Parkdale, Jane and Finch, and East Scarborough in my community. Systema students develop crucial social skills like empathy, problem solving, and communications while they are learning music together. Mr Speaker, a mother said about her daughter who has been in the program for two years that formerly she was shy and really this program, it's like a cocoon becoming a butterfly. She said that instead of kids just staying at home, watching TV, that they are improving themselves through this program and I believe that it should be supported by this government. Thank you very much. Member statements? Point of order? Members come for the training and I don't want them to miss any part of the training. I just want to quickly introduce them. I've got Lily, I've got Lily Ahn, I've got Alexandra Scappini, I've got Tarun Saroya, I've got Maxine and Swell S. Braden joining us today. Member statements? Member for Mississauga Streetswell. Speaker, today I would like to talk about a young man, Trooper Mark Dia, who chose to serve our great country in the Canadian Armed Forces. Mark always made it a point of coming back to Mississauga during his leave to take part in youth camps, becoming a role model and a mentor. Sadly, Trooper Mark Dia died on March the 8th, 2009 after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan. Mr Speaker, he was only 22 years old and about to come home. In his honour this past Saturday, I attended the Streetswell Overseas Legion for breakfast to join the Canadian Armed Veterans Motorcycle Unit, who came from across the province to kick off their annual Trooper Mark Dia memorial ride. During my conversations with Trooper Mark Dia's family and fellow vets, I advised them of the all-party unanimous passing of private member's bill ballot item number 12 to erect a monument on the grounds of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in honour of the brave men and women who fought during the war in Afghanistan. Needless to say, Mr Speaker, the announcement was very well received by our vets, who felt they were being recognised for the sacrifices made. Welcome to our gallery and also to Mark's cousin, Ghassan Krish. Unable to join us today, but watching live on TV, are Mark's parents, Hani Jihan and their entire family. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all members of the Legislature for passing of this bill and to stand as a testament of sacrifices made by our troops, lest we forget. Member's statements, the member for Kiwet Nong. Thank you. To pick up the conversation from this morning, like the one I talked about regarding the Bearskin Lake youth suicide, I think it's very important to know that all the MPPs that you know this issue is a marker of a bigger issue and that relates to intergenerational trauma. You know, intergenerational trauma has been passed down from generation to generation for our people because of the things that happened in residential schools. And one of the things that sometimes for me, you know, cancelling the indigenous curriculum programme, this government has decided to teach, not to teach young students about residential schools, and not even to have a conversation about what reconciliation is, is an issue. Resolving the problem of First Nation youth suicide and indigenous youth suicide were required whereby all Ontarians need to know and understand the root cause of this issue, the problem issue of suicide. Without this next generation of children learning about the history of First Nations people, indigenous peoples in this great province of Ontario, how can the people of my writing expect people to care? Without the caring, you know, how can we ever expect things to get well changed? Thank you. Member's statements, the member for Don Valley North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Saturday, September 8th, a sunny and cool afternoon, I hosted our first annual community barbecue in my writing of Don Valley North at the Coma Park. Over 2,000 residents joined us for free food and drink and enjoyed various multicultural performances. In addition to my constituents, friends and volunteers, my fellow member for Markham Univer from Scarborough Agincourt and Scarborough Ruth Park joined us as well. Also Markham Univer MP Bob Soria, Markham Regional Councilor Joe Lee and Richmond here, City Councilor Goldman Chin have attended. All three levels of government were represented. We have local Armenian, Chinese and Korean community groups entertain. The audience with amazing cultural and musical arts. It was a great success. I look forward to hosting our second community barbecue next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. The next member's statement, Mr. Markham Stovall. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise and give a statement today. I want to just take a brief moment to talk about the Markham Fair, if I can, Mr. Speaker. As you may or may not know, Mr. Speaker, back in 1844, the Markham East York Agricultural Society got together to start a local fair. The Markham Fair has continued since that time, Mr. Speaker. Over 700 volunteers annually take part in making sure that we have a great four-day fair, Mr. Speaker. I know that you would probably appreciate, all members of the House would probably appreciate the many different contests that they have. Of course, they judge the best heifer, the best bull. There's a lot of pie eating contests, all the things that you would find at a fair across Ontario, but it's more special for our community, Mr. Speaker, given the fact that our farming community, our agricultural community was under such pressure for so many years, Mr. Speaker. In particular, its greatest threat came with the last Liberal government, Mr. Speaker, when the creation of the Rouge Park was underway. The previous Liberal government, of course, had wiped out farms in my riding and planted trees across those farms. Now, well, nobody can suggest that tree planting isn't important for our community, but farming is also important to our community, Mr. Speaker. And I'm very proud that this tradition is continuing and that this government and the federal government that I was a member of before stood up for farmers, continued to stand up for farmers, and that the great farming tradition and the important business that is agriculture in my community will continue for a long time, despite the threats that it had from previous governments in this place, Mr. Speaker. So I encourage all members to get out, come to the Markham Fair after you've had a chance to visit Ford Fest, get out and visit the Markham Fair because you'll have a great time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of order, the member for Nickelbelt. I would wish to correct the record from my colleague from Kitchener Center. This morning she said the Ministry of Economic Development, she met to say a committee of the Ministry of Economic Development. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you. Yeah, I think that standing order allows a member to correct their own record, but we appreciate the information on the lesson.