Labour, organ donor bills moved in name of Kormos
Peter Kormos may be gone, but his legacy in Ontario’s legislature will live on if one of his proteges has anything to say about it.
France Gelinas, NDP MPP for Nickel Belt riding in Sudbury, has put forward two bills in Kormos’s name in the hopes they will become law before the house rises for the next election.
“We are going to be sitting for the next four weeks maximum, so I hope we will be able to make this happen,” Gelinas said in an interview with The Standard. “I don’t have any control over that, though. It will be up to the Liberal Party to move these bills forward.”
On Thursday, Gelinas’ bills — one called The Trillium Gift of Life Network Amendment about organ donation and an anti-scab amendment to the Labour Relations Act — were reintroduced to the house after it was briefly prorogued for the throne speech.
Both issues were causes Kormos cared deeply about, Gelinas said, and it seems fitting to bring them before the legislature near the anniversary of his death.
Kormos, a longtime NDP MPP for Welland who also sat for a short time as a Niagara Region councillor, died March 30, 2013, at the age of 60.
Gelinas said when she was first elected to the provincial house, Kormos took her under his wing and showed her how to navigate the sometimes bewildering world of provincial politics.
Kormos made a career as a working man’s politician, and often pushed for changes to legislation that would enhance workers rights. Gelinas said he long wanted to see laws pass that
would prohibit replacement workers — pejoratively called scabs — from crossing picket lines during labour strikes.
Her bill, if passed, would do just that, although she said it is unlikely the Liberals will pick up Kormos’s torch on this score.
However, she does think there is broader support for her bill on organ donation, a cause Kormos was passionate about, although it was not as high profile as his positions on labour relations or health care.
The bill would change organ donations in Ontario from an opt-in to an opt-out system, Gelinas said.
The proposed changes to the law “assumes consent” for organ donations, making the need to fill out an organ donation card unnecessary.
The bill does allow citizens to opt out of organ donation when they renew their driver’s licence and health card, she said, and a person’s next of kin can also opt out on behalf of the deceased.
However, she said in jurisdictions where assumed consent for organ donation is the law, more organs are available for transplant and more lives are saved.