Ontario Standing Order Change Helps an MPP Find His Voice
Kezia Mamakwa’s 79th birthday was unlike any she had had before. On this occasion, she made the journey to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to listen to her son make history as the first Member to speak to the House in an Indigenous language by delivering remarks and asking questions in Question Period in Anishininiimowin (Oji-Cree).
Rachel Nauta
Rachel Nauta served as Executive Assistant to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2018-2025. She is an alumni of the Ontario Legislature Internship Programme.
First elected in 2018, Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa’s identity has been central to his work as a Member of Provincial Parliament. However, until May 28, 2024, a key part of expressing his identity was obstructed because Members were not permitted to speak Indigenous languages inside the legislature to ask questions or participate in debate. A collaborative, cross-party effort helped to change that;
and it all started with a cafeteria table conversation.
The story goes that MPP Mamakwa told a crowd gathered for an event that he couldn’t speak his first language inside the Chamber. In the crowd was a surprised Government House Leader, Paul Calandra, who approached his colleague in the cafeteria the next day to suggest it must be a misunderstanding. But MPP Mamakwa assured him that it was true, since Standing Order 24 read:
Every Member desiring to speak must rise in his or her place and address the Speaker, in either English or French.
Over breakfast, the two Members agreed it was time for a change, and soon after, a motion was introduced in the House to make a change to Standing Order 24 (a), so that it would read:
Every Member desiring to speak must rise in his or her place and address the Speaker, in either English, French, or an Indigenous language spoken in Canada.
If a Member wishes to address the House in an Indigenous language, they shall, prior to taking their seat for the first time, notify the Clerk of the House of the language in which they intend to speak so the Speaker may arrange appropriate interpretation and translation capabilities.
During debate on the Standing Order change, MPP Mamakwa shared why this change was so monumental not just for him, but for all Indigenous peoples and for Canadians working towards reconciliation:
“Our language, Anishininiimowin, defines and informs who we are…[it] enables us to express our values, our ways of life, our culture, our histories, our geography, our philosophy and our world view… The change being made here today should be a model and a beginning for more change to support and care for our languages and to respect our right to speak them. This isn’t just the right thing to do; it is about recognizing what is already our right to speak. Moving forward from the history and continued reality of colonial violence to Indigenous people is not possible without protecting our languages.”
The motion passed unanimously on March 26, 2024. MPP Mamakwa notified the Clerks that he intended to speak Anishininiimowin in the Chamber on May 28, and Assembly staff began working behind the scenes to prepare.
In another collaborative effort, the Assembly’s House Publications and Language Services (HPLS) and Broadcast and Recording Service (BRS) departments determined what would be required to allow for an Indigenous language to be spoken in the House, and what resources they would need to implement the change.
Though Presiding Officers had always allowed brief remarks in many other languages, before the standing order change, the House was limited to Canada’s official languages for questions and substantial debate so that all Members could understand through simultaneous interpretation. With the addition of Indigenous languages, HPLS needed to find interpreters able to interpret remarks from Anishininiimowin into English (and from there, HPLS staff could interpret the remarks into French). With MPP Mamakwa’s assistance, the Assembly secured the interpretation professionals they needed and began practice runs with the Broadcast and Recording team to ensure that everything was running smoothly for the main event.
BRS also worked to mark the small details of the occasion. For the televised broadcast, MPP Mamakwa’s name was shown on the TV scroll in Oji-Cree syllabics. This display was not as simple as changing the font from Latin characters into Oji-Cree syllabics. BRS software did not have that option.
The BRS team had to get creative and their solution was, literally, off the wall. After each Parliament, the names of Members in Ontario’s Legislature are carved into stone and, fortunately, MPP Mamakwa’s name from the 42nd Parliament was added in both Latin characters and Oji-Cree syllabics. BRS was able to convert an image of the carved text into a digital format for the screen.
When the big day arrived, the Assembly was a flurry of activity with many invited guests excited to witness history. Legislative Protective Service officers and Parliamentary Protocol and Public Relations staff helped everyone find their way into the building and up to the Chamber—a space that some visitors were entering for the very first time. The atmosphere was electric and a murmur of activity was heard across the floor and throughout the room.
Then, when MPP Mamakwa rose in his place, the Chamber was silent in anticipation. As he remarked on the historical significance of the day, MPP Mamakwa shared that “speaking Anishininiimowin, an Indigenous language, that’s where my life comes from. As I speak my language—we feel secure and well in our land when we speak our own language… we receive strength in speaking our language and it’s like a healing medicine.”
He also recognized the collaborative efforts of many that helped make history that day, saying “thank you to everyone: my colleagues, the elders, the youth, our non-native brothers that are here, the ladies, women, young people, elders—we appreciate you coming, your attendance. Thank you for showing us the support for the change today. It’s a healing moment we are in. Our strength is in our language, our people and our relationship to everything that is living. That is who we are and who we will continue to be, living in our good life, in our language.”
MPP Mamakwa’s remarks were greeted with great fanfare, and a floor crossing by the Premier for a handshake before Question Period, where MPP Mamakwa’s questions about care for seniors in his riding were positively received with commitments for long-term-care in the north.
But, while the historic event in the Chamber was finished, the work of the Assembly was not done. As they always do with House proceedings, the team at Hansard began to transcribe the remarks to be saved for posterity in the official record of debate. This transcription also marked an historic occasion since Hansard is a substantially verbatim report of what is said in the House and its committees, in the language that was spoken. For the first time, Oji-Cree syllabics appeared in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s Hansard publication.
Looking to the future, the Assembly is planning to make additional changes so it will be easier and more efficient for Members to use Indigenous languages in the Chamber, in committees, or in the Media Studio. A dedicated Indigenous language interpretation booth has been developed on-site, and Broadcast and Recording Service is also testing remote interpretation capabilities. House Publications and Language Services is also working to recruit on- call interpreters and preparing their publication programs to transcribe other Indigenous languages that may be used in the House.
No two days at the Legislative Assembly are the same, but there are certainly some days that stand out more than others. May 28, 2024, was one of those days that won’t soon be forgotten, thanks to the cumulative efforts of Members of Provincial Parliament and staff of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. As MPP Mamakwa said to conclude his speech “This is a great day”—a sentiment that was echoed by many who were part of this historic occasion—and hopefully, one of many great days ahead.