{"id":9529,"date":"2015-01-14T18:35:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T23:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=9529"},"modified":"2015-01-14T18:35:11","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T23:35:11","slug":"resident-questions-mpps-stance-on-anti-slapp-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/resident-questions-mpps-stance-on-anti-slapp-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Resident questions MPP\u2019s stance on Anti-SLAPP legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 8, our current Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard rose in the Provincial Legislature to deliver his inaugural speech.
\nIn it, he stated:
\n\u201cTo friends Ken Whitehurst and former Aurora mayor Phyllis Morris, who incubated and encouraged my political ambition to be a Town Councillor and, later, an MPP: Thank you.\u201d
\nTwo days later, on December 10, MPP Ballard rose once again, to speak in support of an important bill, Bill 52: \u201cAn Act to amend the Courts of Justice Act, the Libel and Slander Act and the Statutory Powers Procedure Act in order to protect expression on matters of public interest.\u201d
\nOtherwise known as the \u201cAnti-SLAPP\u201d legislation. (SLAPP: \u201cStrategic Litigation Against Public Participation\u201d)
\nReferring to Bill 52, MPP Ballard stated: \u201cBut for those who don\u2019t have the backing of a large organization, it is extremely anti-democratic to be able to pour cold water on a citizen\u2019s right to talk and to raise important issues.\u201d
\nShortly thereafter, MPP Sylvia Jones rose to offer her support of Bill 52, citing many examples of the damages a SLAPP action can have on the public and our democratic right to free speech.
\nAt one point she stated:
\n\u201cI\u2019m going to go to my next example. This offers perhaps the most startling but also clear case of a SLAPP example that I can discuss here today. In this case, the claimant was the mayor of an Ontario town – so, a politician – and the defendants were members of the town\u2019s news media. One of them was also a former town councillor. In essence, Speaker, one of the defendants was known for commenting on the town\u2019s municipal issues, not unusual in our local papers. He frequently wrote articles dealing with municipal issues as a recurring column that was published on the Internet on a local website focused on current events in the town. The other defendant was a former town councillor and was the website\u2019s moderator.\u201d
\nMPP Jones goes on in her statement, detailing the pertinent issues regarding the 2010 Morris lawsuit, to which she is referring.
\nThe entire record, including both MPP Ballard\u2019s and MPP Jones\u2019 full statements, can be found at this Legislative Assembly of Ontario link: http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/ola-dec10
\nSo to the point of my letter:
\nPrior to, and while an Aurora Town Councillor, Chris Ballard made it very clear that he supported ex-mayor Morris in her ultimately failed lawsuit.
\nIn fact, when the newly-elected 2010-2014 Aurora Town Council tabled a motion to cease Ms. Morris\u2019 access to taxpayer dollars funding her very \u201canti-democratic\u201d SLAPP action, then-Councillor Ballard voted against this motion.
\nTo this day, I believe he still maintains that Ms. Morris\u2019 actions were not a SLAPP, despite the Ontario court\u2019s ruling otherwise.
\nNow as an MPP, and within a 48-hour span, MPP Ballard praises the ex-mayor, then goes on to support stronger
\nanti-SLAPP legislation, a bill moved by his current bosses.
\nI am not surprised at the
\ncontradictory stance taken by our Newmarket-Aurora MPP. It is my personal opinion that he will continue to capitulate to whatever body is most strategically positioned to feed his \u201cpolitical ambition\u201d.\t<\/p>\n

Matt Maddocks
\nAurora<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 8, our current Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard rose in the Provincial Legislature to deliver his inaugural speech. In it, he stated: \u201cTo friends Ken Whitehurst and former Aurora mayor Phyllis Morris, who incubated and encouraged my political ambition to be a Town Councillor and, later, an MPP: Thank you.\u201d Two days later, on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2tH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 20:37:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}