Province-Wide Mobilization Against
Government's Anti-Social Agenda

In over 60 communities across Ontario thousands of people rallied on May 30 in the third monthly mass action against the Ford government's attacks on health care, education, social programs and the environment. Signs and banners highlighted many aspects of Ford's restructuring of the state to put all decision-making directly into the hands of narrow supranational private interests. In every community, at MPP's offices, on busy streets and in public squares, workers, youth and seniors raised their demands.

One universal demand is the repeal of Bill 5, the Protect Ontario By Unleashing Our Economy Act, 2025. This act gives the government the authority to designate "special economic zones" in which provincial laws and regulations -- including those related to the environment, health and safety, and labour laws -- can be overridden for resource extraction and infrastructure projects that serve narrow private interests. Indigenous and environmental organizations as well as those fighting for democratic reform have launched court challenges to Bill 5.

The largest action took place in Toronto as thousands rallied in front of the provincial legislature. Besides the demand for an end to the Ford government's corruption, secrecy and attacks on education, health care and social services, a focus was on the fight to prevent the Ford government from expanding the Billy Bishop airport on the Toronto harbour to accommodate commercial jets.

Bill 110, the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, 2026, was debated under closure and passed on May 28, despite broad opposition from community groups, the City of Toronto and all opposition MPPs. The expansion is demanded by Neiuport Aviation which owns the airport terminal and is part of the U.S. J.P. Morgan empire. To assist them, Ford's legislation takes over the land owned by the City of Toronto in order to breach a decades-old tripartite agreement between the City, the Toronto Harbour Commission and the federal government that explicitly prohibits the use of the airport for commercial jets. Ford has said that the airport expansion would be designated a "special economic zone" so that nothing stands in the way of his pay-the-rich scheme.

Speakers and organizers at the Toronto rally encouraged everyone to join a demonstration and press conference on Parliament Hill on Wednesday, June 10 to demand that the federal government refuse to greenlight the plan.

The unifying theme of the actions was people's opposition to the anti-democratic actions of the government to centralize power over health care, education, the environment and all aspects of life in the hands of Cabinet Ministers. Centralizing power in the ministers overrides elected municipal councils, replaces elected regional chairs with government appointees, places school boards under administration by the Minister of Education, and more.

Many actions denounced the recent passage of Bill 97, the Plan to Protect Ontario Act, 2026, an omnibus bill that makes sweeping changes to the province's privacy, freedom of information, pension and municipal legislation. This includes protecting communications of the premier and his cabinet from public scrutiny. A representative of Democracy Watch, speaking at the Toronto rally, pointed out that the legislation makes Ontario's cabinet the most secretive in Canada. The new legislation would eliminate the possibility of anyone uncovering the kind of secret deals that characterized the Greenbelt scandal and the corruption revealed regarding the Skills Development Fund, among others.

People are demanding not just that they be listened to but that they participate in making the decisions on all matters that concern their well-being and the well-being of the society. They are rejecting Ford's rule by decree, lies, secrecy, cover-ups and backroom deals to serve the oligarchs at the expense of the people and the environment.

The next province-wide action will take place on Saturday, June 27.