Bill 65 explained in plain English
Honouring Our Veterans Act, 2023
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
Bill 65 amends the Remembrance Week Act, 2016 to require Ontario Legislative Assembly members to observe two minutes of silence and permit speeches honouring those who died in wars and peacekeeping efforts on the last sessional day before Remembrance Day each year.
This bill changes how Ontario's Legislative Assembly honours veterans and those who died in military service. Starting immediately, on the last day the legislature sits before Remembrance Day each year, all members must pause and observe two minutes of silence to honour those who died serving Canada in wars and peacekeeping efforts. After the moment of silence, members are allowed to give speeches about this topic. The Official Opposition gets 5 minutes to speak, the Government's party gets 5 minutes, and any other recognized parties and independent members share 5 minutes as a group. This moment of silence and the speeches happen right after the Introduction of Visitors in the daily schedule.
- Repeals the existing Section 4 of the Remembrance Week Act, 2016 and replaces it with new requirements
- Requires members of the Ontario Legislative Assembly to pause and observe two minutes of silence on the last sessional day before Remembrance Day each year to honour those who died serving Canada in wars and peacekeeping efforts
- Allows members to give speeches after the two minutes of silence, with a total of 15 minutes allocated: 5 minutes to the Official Opposition party, 5 minutes to the party forming the Government, and 5 minutes to any other recognized parties and independent members as a group
- Schedules this moment of silence and speeches immediately after Introduction of Visitors during the Morning Routine of the Legislative Assembly
- Comes into force immediately upon Royal Assent, which occurred on October 26, 2023
- Members of the Ontario Legislative Assembly – they must observe two minutes of silence and are permitted to give speeches
- The Official Opposition party – allocated 5 minutes for speeches
- The recognized party forming the Government – allocated 5 minutes for speeches
- Any other recognized parties and independent members – share 5 minutes for speeches as a group
- The public and veterans – indirectly affected as this creates a formal legislative recognition of those who died in wars and peacekeeping efforts
- Obligation: Members of the Legislative Assembly must pause and observe two minutes of silence on the last sessional day before Remembrance Day each year
- Right: Members are permitted (but not required) to give speeches after the silence, subject to time allocation rules
- Timing requirement: The silence and speeches must occur immediately after Introduction of Visitors during the Morning Routine
- Royal Assent: October 26, 2023
- Commencement: The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent (October 26, 2023)
- Annual occurrence: On the last sessional day before Remembrance Day each year, beginning in 2023
- The bill does not specify what happens if a legislative session does not sit on the last day before Remembrance Day, or how this requirement applies in years where the legislature is not in session before Remembrance Day
- The bill does not provide details on enforcement or consequences if members do not comply with the requirement to observe the two minutes of silence
- The bill uses the phrase 'permitted to give speeches' but does not clarify whether speeches are optional or if there is any expectation that they will be given
- The definition of 'recognized party' is incorporated from the Legislative Assembly Act, which is not included in this bill text, so the exact criteria for what constitutes a 'recognized party' are not provided here
Section 4 of the Remembrance Week Act, 2016 was repealed and replaced with new requirements for how members of the Legislative Assembly must honour those who died in military service on the last sessional day before Remembrance Day each year, including a mandatory two-minute silence and optional speeches.
Source: Section 1 of Bill 65
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced