Ontario Legislature’s keffiyeh ban is yet another attempt to vilify the Palestine movement, but Canadian activists are fighting back, reports John Clarke

The Speaker of the Ontario legislature, Ted Arnott, has imposed a ban on the wearing of the keffiyeh in the building. Though it is worn by many people in Ontario, Arnott has decided that the keffiyeh’s association with Palestinian identity means it violates a rule that ‘props, signage or accessories intended to express a political statement’ cannot be brought into the legislature.

It is easy to imagine that the ‘extensive research’ that Arnott claims to have conducted into the keffiyeh involved considerable input from those who are politically hostile to the Palestinian struggle and, indeed, City News reports that his action was undertaken after ‘one member of provincial parliament – he would not say who – brought to his attention that Sarah Jama, who sits as an independent, was wearing a keffiyeh.’

Anti-Palestinian racism

The ban has had an immediate practical impact on both visitors to the legislature and those who work in the building. Marit Stiles, leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) said it only came to her attention ‘when one of her staffers, who wears a keffiyeh every day, had to remove it before entering the building.’

The Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA) has concluded that ‘…characterizing as “political” anything related to Palestine and Palestinians, is a form of anti-Palestinian racism because this label is used to exclude Palestinians or their culture or narratives from public spaces.’ On April 23, ACLA president Dania Majid and Christopher Zabaneh, from Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), went to the legislature to meet with Stiles and were denied entry because they wore keffiyehs. They chose to conduct their meeting on a park bench outside, rather than submit to this racist harassment.

On the same day, for the second time, a motion to reverse the ban went down to defeat. The NDP, Liberal and Green parties supported the motion but, since it had to be passed unanimously in order to overrule the Speaker, a few dissenting members of the governing Tory Party were able to get their way. Ontario premier Doug Ford has called the ban ‘divisive’ and opposed it, but he has allowed the members of his party a free vote on the matter, cynically ensuring that the measure will stay in place.

Robin Martin is the leading force among the Tory members determined to exclude the keffiyeh from the legislature. She insists that it would ‘politicize the entire debate inside the legislature.’ Yet her commitment to impartial standards may not be as robust as she suggests. CJPME noted in a recent post on X that she was seen ‘wearing a pro-Israel dog tag in the legislature 2 months ago.’

There has been a wave of community-based opposition to the ban and the ‘National Council of Canadian Muslims says banning the keffiyeh from the legislature is another sign that Palestinian identity is being attacked.’ The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has objected that ‘it is not up to the Speaker to decide that a piece of clothing that unquestionably bears a cultural significance is now necessarily being worn as a political prop… banning it as a result, is discriminatory towards Arab communities and is a direct attack on freedom of expression.’

Trade-union leaders have also spoken out, with Laura Walton, the president of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), declaring that to ‘target a cultural community like this, in 2024, is simply unconscionable… we won’t stand for it. If Ford won’t end this racist ban, we’ll defy it.’ The OFL also organised a rally at the premier’s constituency office in Toronto on 26 April to press the demand for the reversal of the ban.

Sarah Jama, the independent MPP whose wearing of the keffiyeh was brought to the attention of the Speaker, has refused to submit to his dictates. Global News reports that even ‘with the ban in place, Jama has worn a keffiyeh inside the chamber.’ On 25 April, Jama, who has played a leading role in the struggle for the rights of disabled people and is herself a wheelchair user, was named by the Speaker and ordered to leave the chamber. She refused to comply with this instruction and Arnott decided not to have her physically removed.

The day after Jama defied the Speaker in this way, Marit Stiles issued a video statement in which she noted that ‘…we’ve been working to reverse the keffiyeh ban inside the walls of Queen’s Park, but Doug Ford’s MPPs keep blocking us. So we decided to give the government until May 6 to reverse this unjust rule or expect us and the community to defy the ban.’ Opposition parties can only put forward unanimous consent motions so Stiles has essentially given Ford a deadline for the introduction of a government motion that would be decided by a majority vote.

It will be a very welcome development if the NDP actually defies this outrageous ban, and with community backing it could generate a powerful challenge to both the Tories and the Speaker. However, it must be acknowledged that the NDP’s failure to take a strong and principled position of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle made it very much easier for the Speaker to enact the ban in the first place.

Sarah Jama only sits as an independent MPP because the NDP shamefully disowned her last year. After 7 October, she issued a clear and principled statement in solidarity with the Palestinians and was outrageously accused by Doug Ford of ‘supporting the rape and murder of innocent Jewish people.’ Based on these slanderous accusations, she was censured and prohibited from speaking in the legislature. Then, as I noted in an article for Canadian Dimension, ‘when she persisted in calling out the oppressive nature of the Israeli state, she was removed from the party’s legislative caucus.’

Since last autumn, the continuing genocide in Gaza and the vibrancy of the Palestine solidarity movement in Canada have made it harder for the NDP leadership to act as apologists for Israel. They had to challenge the overtly racist keffiyeh ban but it is unlikely that they would have moved beyond futile motions and empty expressions of disapproval without Jama’s refusal to submit to the ban.

Palestine solidarity

Though we cannot have precise knowledge of the deliberations and discussions that led to the Speaker’s ban of the keffiyeh, we may reject out of hand the claim that is motivated by any desire to impartially enforce parliamentary protocols. It is evident that particularly zealous supporters of Israel want to prevent an expression of Palestinian identity that they despise, and their racist objective has been backed by a compliant Speaker.

Doug Ford may choose to publicly disapprove of the ban but his refusal to take the action necessary to overturn it makes clear that he is fully prepared to tolerate it. Indeed, the premier has been ready to engage in his own attacks on Palestine solidarity, going so far as to label protests against the Gaza genocide as ‘hate rallies going down our streets trying to intimidate our Jewish communities.’ The keffiyeh ban is a particularly egregious measure, but it is part of a campaign of slander and vilification in which the mainstream of the Canadian political establishment is fully implicated.

Even as the Speaker adopts this appalling measure, pro-Palestinian protests continue to gather force across the country. Following the lead of American universities, a solidarity encampment has been set up at McGill University in Montreal and news has just broken of another at the University of British Columbia. The University of Toronto has now fenced off a part of its property to try and prevent ‘unauthorized activity’ but such measures will not succeed and a wave of Palestine solidarity actions at Canadian universities is now emerging.

The banning of the keffiyeh at the Ontario Legislature is a despicable and dangerously racist measure, but it can be defeated. The very crudity of this attack speaks to a certain level of desperation, as those who wish to support Israel’s crimes lose legitimacy and act in the face of a decisive shift in popular sentiment. The attempt to suppress the wearing of the keffiyeh will only ensure that it is worn proudly by more people than ever, both inside the legislature and throughout the province of Ontario.