Four protesters who unfurled keffiyehs inside Ontario’s legislature and were subsequently kicked out have been banned from Queen’s Park.
Mariam Bebawy says she and three friends from York Centre 4 Palestine were given trespass notices last week from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s sergeant-at-arms after they held out their keffiyehs and began chanting “free free Palestine” during question period.
The notice says she is prohibited from entering the premises of the main legislative building and a government building nearby.
A keffiyeh is a checkered scarf typically worn in Arab cultures that has come to symbolize solidarity with Palestinians.
Speaker Ted Arnott banned keffiyehs at the legislature earlier this year, saying they are being worn to make a political statement, but all four party leaders including Premier Doug Ford have asked for the ban to be overturned.
Neither Arnott’s office nor sergeant-at-arms Tim McGough responded to several requests for comment.
Independent MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Ontario legislature last month for refusing to take off her keffiyeh.
The NDP has twice attempted to overturn the ban, failing both times with a handful of progressive Conservative MPPs voting against it. And now a coalition of lawyers have filed a formal request with the Speaker’s Office to reverse the ban.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles says her party plans to defy the keffiyeh ban if it’s not reversed by May 6 when MPPs are scheduled to return to Queen’s Park.