Ontarians Call for Defeat of Ford Government's Anti-Social Agenda

Queen's Park, April 25, 2026

Thousands of Ontarians from Ottawa to Windsor, from Thunder Bay to Toronto took part in "Fighting Ford" protests on April 25 to denounce the Doug Ford Conservative government's continued corruption, assaults on their democratic rights and intensification of the anti-social destruction of the province, its people and resources in the service of supranational private interests. Actions were organized by the Ontario Health Coalition and through social media in cities and towns throughout the province.

A major focus of the actions was the demand for repeal of Bill 97, the Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), an omnibus budget bill that was fast-tracked through the legislature on April 23 without any public consultations or input. The legislation makes changes to the province's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, retroactively, to prevent public scrutiny of communications records of Ford and his ministers. Several speakers at rallies noted that it was such records obtained through freedom of information that exposed the Green Belt scandal that Ford and his developer friends were involved in and which prompted a police investigation.

Protesters also called for the repeal of Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, 2025, through which the Premier and Cabinet can designate any part of Ontario a "special economic zone" in order to fast track projects that serve narrow private interests and allow the executive to override laws and regulations, including those of cities and regional bodies. One of the main themes of the action in Toronto was opposition to Ford's plan to take over the lands around the Billy Bishop airport from the city to expand it to allow jets to land by designating it the province's first "special economic zone."

Common themes in the protests included the lack of affordable housing for the most vulnerable, hospital privatization and cuts to health care and to education including to the Ontario Student Assistance Program and autism services and to other social programs. Protesters also denounced the criminalization of protests and the Ford government's support for war and war production in the name of creating jobs and prosperity in the face of U.S. tariffs.

The organizers pledged to continue mobilizing and organizing Ontarians to put their demands forward, to hold the Ford Conservatives to account and advance their fight for an Ontario where the well-being of the people, not the rich oligarchs and their narrow destructive agenda, are put in first place.