MPP ejected from legislature over kaffiyeh

New Democrat MPP Jill Andrew was ejected from the Ontario legislature Wednesday for wearing a kaffiyeh in defiance of a ban on “political attire” in the chamber.

Fuelling a rift in the NDP caucus over the kaffiyeh issue, the incident upstaged party leader Marit Stiles as she grilled Premier Doug Ford’s government on the doctor shortage that has left 2.3 million Ontarians without family physicians.

Andrew (Toronto-St. Paul’s) was escorted from the chamber for the day after refusing a request from Speaker Ted Arnott to remove the black-and-white scarf worn in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

A teary Andrew told reporters she wore the kaffiyeh, as well as a Jewish prayer cloth, “to stand for peace, for freedom, for the civil rights of people who are having their civil rights attacked by this legislature.”

She is the third MPP to be ejected from the chamber this week for wearing a kaffiyeh.

Her decision to don the blackand-white scarf followed what sources told the Star was a heated debate in Tuesday’s NDP caucus meeting over the merits of the party’s recent focus on overturning the ban.

There are concerns it is distracting from the party’s efforts to hold the government to account on provincial issues such as education and health care, insiders said privately in order to discuss internal deliberations.

Andrew stressed she strongly disagrees with Arnott’s ruling that kaffiyeh may not be worn in the chamber.

“We cannot ask Ontarians to check their heritage, their culture, their religion, their identity at the door,” she said.

The Speaker waded into the issue in March, deciding that kaffiyehs had become a political symbol since the Hamas-Israel War began Oct. 7.

He banned them from the building, but softened that position in a clarification Monday that allows

MPPs, staff and visitors to wear them in the building but not in the legislative chamber or public viewing galleries.

“I am standing with Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and Jews in my riding and across Ontario who are against the kaffiyeh ban,” Andrew said.

Andrew said she pulled the kaffiyeh out of her bag and donned it before the legislature’s daily question period began.

It appears Arnott did not notice the scarf until the one-hour session was in progress.

New Democrat MPPs Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre) and Joel Harden (Ottawa Centre) followed Andrew out of the chamber in support but were not wearing kaffiyehs as they did on Monday. That’s when Harden was ejected along with Independent MPP Sarah Jama (Hamilton Centre), a former New Democrat.

Stiles has tried twice to have the kaffiyeh ban lifted by a vote of the legislature, but attempts have been blocked by a handful of Progressive

Conservative MPPs. All party leaders have said they do not agree with the ban.

New Democratic Party MPP Jill Andrew was escorted out of the legislature Wednesday after refusing to remove the black-and -white scarf worn in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza