The premier and former solicitor general, who are facing pressure to testify at the Emergencies Act inquiry, carefully avoided reporters on Tuesday as MPPs returned to parliament.

Premier Doug Ford and Sylvia Jones, the health minister who was Ontario’s minister responsible for policing during the convoy occupation of Ottawa, both skipped question period. Tuesday marked the first question period in almost seven weeks and the first time MPPs have sat in the chamber since early September.

Asked afterward why Ford missed it, Government House Leader Paul Calandra said “the premier is out today making an announcement and giving a speech.” Journalists were barred from attending this event.

Ford returned to the legislature Tuesday afternoon. When he left his office for another across his hall QP Briefing asked him if he would discuss appearing before the Emergencies Act inquiry. "I'm OK right now," Ford said while he walked away.

Ford’s speech earlier in the day was at a Toronto Region Board of Trade event held about two kilometres from Queen’s Park in downtown Toronto.

A QP Briefing reporter who showed up at the location was told by an event organizer that the government insisted journalists not be allowed to attend. Other reporters were barred from going as well, which is unusual for those hosted by the Toronto Region Board of Trade, which is sponsored by the Globe and Mail.

At least two PC MPPs, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy and associate housing minister Michael Parsa, made it to the board of trade event after attending question period.

Ford and Housing Minister Steve Clark, who also wasn’t in question period, announced the next set of government initiatives to work toward its goal of getting 1.5 million homes built over the next decade at the event. Their announcement pre-empted the government’s tabling of a new housing bill.

The government didn’t want reporters at the Toronto Region Board of Trade event because Clark was going to speak to reporters after introducing the legislation, said the organizer who explained to a QP Briefing reporter why they needed to leave. Ford’s and Clark’s remarks were both streamed online.

Before a QP Briefing reporter spoke to a board of trade organizer on-site at the event, a spokesperson had said in an earlier email that it was “full from ticketed attendees (fire capacity full), so we aren’t inviting media today.” Tickets were priced at $75-$105. Its presenting sponsor was the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario, a landlords’ association. The event's web page showed it was “sold out” on Tuesday.

Reporters were invited to several board of trade events in recent months, including a Toronto mayoral debate on Oct. 17, a discussion about Ontario’s strong mayor powers on Sept. 28, and a luncheon with Toronto Mayor John Tory on June 23.

Jones’s absence from Queen’s Park on Tuesday went unexplained by her office. Neither of two of her spokespeople responded before this story was published when asked where she was on Tuesday.

Calandra, who in his capacity as long-term care minister works closely with the health minister, said Jones was “ill” when asked in passing on Tuesday. A source in the premier's office said Jones wasn't feeling well, as well.

The day before Ontario’s legislature returned, lawyers of the Public Order Emergency Commission, which is investigating the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act in response to the so-called Freedom Convoy’s month-long occupation of Ottawa, told groups participating in the inquiry that its counsel had issued a summons that day — Monday — to Ford and Jones to appear.

Read More: Emergencies Act inquiry summons Premier Doug Ford to testify

Ford and Jones are trying not to appear. Attorney General Doug Downey’s spokesperson said in a statement on Monday that the Ontario government would be seeking a judicial review to set aside the summons on the grounds that it’s “inconsistent with the members’ parliamentary privilege.”

Downey was at Queen’s Park on Tuesday but avoided reporters after question period, the usual time for ministers to scrum with journalists at the legislature.

The Ford government’s role during the convoy occupation has come up multiple times so far in the inquiry.

Outgoing Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said in his testimony that Jones was being “disingenuous” about 1,500 OPP officers being sent to Ottawa in the early-goings of the protests.

“Doug Ford has been hiding from his responsibility on it for political reasons,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Watson in a phone call during the occupation, according to a transcript Watson shared.

Read More: Trudeau blasted Ford for ‘hiding from his responsibility’ to deal with Ottawa convoy

The Ontario government has also been harshly criticized for not attending tri-government meetings on Feb. 7, 8 and 10. Ford was snowmobiling near his cottage in Muskoka the weekend before, CTV News reported days later.

Ottawa city manager Steve Kanellakos told the commission that Jones felt the convoy was a policing issue and politicians shouldn't get involved.

Calandra gave a similar reason for why Ford and Jones needn’t testify at the inquiry when speaking to reporters on Tuesday.

“It is a policing matter, not a political matter. However… it is the federal government that enacted the federal Emergencies Act… We have provided the deputy minister of transportation, the deputy solicitor general who can provide specifics and we at the same time have provided a number of key cabinet documents to assist the commission,” Calandra said.

The letter sent by the commission’s counsel on Monday said that the Ontario government provided the inquiry with approximately 800 documents in September. The senior bureaucrats Calandra mentioned have been interviewed and will testify publicly sometime after this week.

“The information gathered by Commission counsel in the course of the investigation made it clear that Premier Ford and Minister Jones would have evidence, particularly within their knowledge, that would be relevant to the Commission’s mandate,” the lawyers’ letter says.

Ford and Jones were asked to interview with the commission for the first time on Sept. 19, followed by “a number of times,” but refused each time, the letter says.

Read More: Emergencies Act inquiry summons Premier Doug Ford to testify

Standing next to Trudeau at an announcement in Ottawa on Oct. 17, Ford said he had not been asked to testify at the inquiry, but that he stood shoulder to shoulder with the prime minister over his decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the protests.

The commission’s letter from Monday appears to contradict Ford’s claim.

“As of last week, the invitation (to Ford and Jones) to attend to testify before the commission has been declined ‘for the moment,’” it said. “It was our hope that Premier Ford and Minister Jones would agree to appear before the Commission voluntarily. However, given that the repeated invitations were all declined, the Commission has issued summons this day to Premier Ford and Minister Jones pursuant to section 4 of the Inquiries Act.”

A statement sent to QP Briefing by the Ford government late on Monday afternoon said that while commission counsel asked to privately interview for the first time on Sept. 19, this is not the same as a formal invitation to testify. “No request to testify came until after the premier's comment,” the government said.

When asked Tuesday morning in Ottawa if he thinks Ford should appear at the inquiry, Trudeau declined to answer directly, given it’s not his decision to make.

“I will let the emergency commission manage its own witnesses,” said the prime minister.

Asked about his comments to Watson that the Ottawa mayor shared with the inquiry, Trudeau added that “yes, there were times when our different orders of government weren’t as aligned as we would have liked to be.”

“But it’s obvious that Premier Ford chose to stand with the people of Ottawa, the people of Ontario, the people of Canada and not with others”

With files from Aidan Chamandy and Jeff Labine.

Ford, Jones avoid questioning as they face pressure to testify at convoy hearings

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