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How is it possible that, in our nation’s capital, those who served our country so bravely could be refused the right to fly our great nation’s flag?

The answer lies in the Condominium Act, 1998 and the buck stops with me. As Minister of Government and Consumer Services, I am responsible for the Condominium Act, 1998, the legislation that controls what authority condominium corporations hold and what types of rules they can put in place.

The Act provides a lot of authority for condo corporations to make rules governing what condo owners can and cannot do with their property, including property owned in common with the other condo owners. The idea being that when you purchase a condominium, you are accepting that you are part of a self-governing community that will have a say over how owners use their property in the interest of the entire community. This is a system that has worked well since it was instituted. There, of course, can be problems with any system as we can see clearly in the case of Mitchell and his family.

I doubt anyone thought, when giving condo corporations these powers, that they would be used as a way to silence. It is certainly not a situation we want to see continue in Ontario.

This is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed and it is one I am looking into currently.

This is an issue I believe should unite all parties in Ontario. On Nov. 28, 2018, Ontario’s Legislative Assembly honoured former MP and MPP Reid Scott, a member of the NDP and part of the 15-member panel that adopted our national flag decades ago.