Controversial Ontario MPP Randy Hillier announces he will not run for re-election
A member of Provincial Parliament from eastern Ontario, who has been outspoken against COVID-19 public health measures, has announced he will not run for re-election in June.
Randy Hillier made the announcement in a 20-minute long video posted to social media.
“I've got an important message for today — a message that will be greeted with sadness by some and that will be greeted with glee by others,” he said.
“On June 2, I will not be contesting for the seat of Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston.”
Hillier’s announcements come just a week after Ontario's legislature unanimously passed a motion authorizing the Speaker to bar the MPP from participating in the chamber for what House Leader Paul Calandra called racist and discriminatory statements made about federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, and for social media posts that Calandra says were inciting a call to violence.
“[Because] of my opposition to the trampling of our civil liberties, and my outspokenness, I'm no longer permitted to be recognized in the legislature,” Hillier said in his video statement.
The MPP has been frequently criticized for posting COVID-19 misinformation. He was charged under the Reopening Ontario Act after organizing a rally at Queen's Park in November, and has more recently supported and attended the Ottawa occupation by anti-vaccine mandate protesters.
Hillier has served as a member of the provincial parliament of Ontario since 2007. He was originally elected as a Progressive Conservative (PC) Party MPP, but was removed in 2019 after making what the premier called "disrespectful" comments to parents of kids with autism.
He has sat as an Independent since.
He says he will continue to be an outspoken voice despite deciding to not seek re-election.
“Our political system is broken,” Hillier said in the video.
“There is no sense spending any more time trying to fix a broken system from within when the problem lies without.”
With files from The Canadian Press and CTV News Toronto’s Colin D’Mello
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.