Ontario Green Party barred from Press Conference

Open Letter in response to being barred from G20 Ombudsman press conference

Hon. Steve Peters
Speaker of the Legislature
Room 180, Main Legislative Building, Queen's Park
Toronto, ON M7A 1A2

OPEN LETTER

Dear Hon. Steve Peters:
On Tuesday, December 7th, I was denied entry by security staff to the Queen’s Park media studio for the public press conference regarding the Ombudsman’s report on the investigation into issues surrounding the G20 Summit.   The reason provided by security was simply that I was not allowed in, despite having clearly identified myself, and with prior confirmation that the news conference was open to the public as per the Queen’s Park Media Studio guidelines.

I believe this incident represents an egregious lapse in ensuring government transparency and accountability in Ontario.  I also believe it is a gross violation of democracy to deny the Leader of an officially registered party entrusted with the votes of 354,897 Ontarians in the last provincial election entry to Queen’s Park for a public news conference.  This incident is especially troubling given the specific focus of the Ombudsman’s report.
Since I have a great deal of respect for you personally and your office, as well as the Legislature itself, my response yesterday was to leave politely, cancel our media availability and instead issue a statement from the Green Party office.  I do, however, hope you agree that attendance at Legislative hearings and public news conferences is a right of any interested citizen, including the leader of a registered political party.   Clearly, yesterday’s refusal demonstrates that this right is by no means guaranteed.

I have respected your decision to deny the Green Party of Ontario (GPO) special consideration for access to the gallery, media studio and media scrum area outside Question Period earlier in the year, and I have made every attempt to comply with the demands of security and protocol. 
Through this, I have done my best to represent the views of hundreds of thousands of citizens despite severely limited access to Queen’s Park.  I hope you can appreciate how difficult this can be when additional road blocks prevent participation in what is supposedly a public event.  It is interesting to note that the GPO, as a provincial party, is able to reserve the media studio in the federal Parliament in Ottawa but not the media studio in the provincial Legislature in Toronto.
A responsible democratic government is an open and accessible government, and this cannot be true until every citizen is allowed to exercise their right to participation. As such we request that steps be taken to clarify security protocols to ensure that no citizen be denied access to Queen’s Park for public events.

We look forward to your reply.
Respectfully yours,

Mike Schreiner, Leader
Green Party of Ontario
c.c: The Honourable Monique M. Smith, Government House Leader
John Yakabuski, Opposition House Leader
Peter Kormos, Third Party House Leader
Gerald Christopher, coordinator of the Queen’s Park Press Gallery
Joe Lemieux, coordinator of the Queen’s Park Media Studio