Green Party leader Mike Schreiner made the following statement in response to allegations of bullying from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services:

“It is wrong for any government Ministry to threaten and bully professional organizations to endorse government policy. I find allegations that the Ministry threatened to make life difficult for the Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysis if it did not support the government’s new autism policy deeply troubling.

No amount of bullying will hide the fact that the government’s autism plan is seriously flawed.

Professional and advocacy groups should be permitted to voice their support or opposition honestly, without fear of reprisal from the levers of power.
This begs the question of whether other groups have been subjected to the same pressure.

People deserve honest answers from government, not ugly partisan pressure to toe the line.”

source: media release, GPO