Roman Baber

Baber was born and raised in the Soviet Union until age 8 then lived in Israel until age 15. He immigrated to Canada with his family in 1995 and settled in North York.[3] Baber attended high school at W.L. Mackenzie Collegiate, obtained a B.A. from York University and then graduated law school at the University of Western Ontario.[3][4][5]

Baber was called to the Ontario Bar in 2006. He practiced in the areas of bankruptcy & commercial litigation for the first 4 years of his career. For 8 years before his election he practiced primarily insurance & commercial litigation as a partner with the North York firm of Taylor, Baber & Mergui.[6]

Baber is an occasional lecturer at an after-school program, teaching constitutional and criminal law topics.[3]

Baber is a member of the Order of the Knights of Rizal, a global order of knighthood in the Philippines and around the world. In December 2018, he was promoted to a new rank of "Commander".[7][8] He is also a member of the Jewish Russian Community Centre.[9]

Baber has often spoken against anti-Semitism in Ontario. He introduced Bill 84, a private members bill which passed 2nd reading on April 4, 2019 that would prohibit hate promoting demonstrations on the Legislative Grounds of Queen's Park.[10] Baber also penned a letter sharing his concern with regards to the protest which was planned to take place at the 2019 Walk with Israel and worked closely with the Toronto Police Service, CIJA and UJA of Greater Toronto to ensure that all would be kept safe.[11][12] Baber spoke against the annual Al Quds Day rally and released the official government statement regarding this.[13]

Baber defeated the former federal Minister of Finance, Joe Oliver for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, nomination in York Centre for the 2018 Ontario election. Oliver lost to Baber by a margin of 711 to 465, respectively on January 15, 2017.[14]

On June 7, 2018, Baber won his York Centre seat in the General Election defeating his nearest challenger by a two-one margin and claimed over 50% of the vote.[15] The riding had been held by former Liberal MPP Monte Kwinter since 1985.[16]

Baber was appointed Chair of Parliament's Standing Committee on Justice Policy on October 31, 2019.[2] He previously served as a member of the Justice Policy Committee and the Standing Committee on Government Agencies.[17] In addition, Baber was appointed and served as a member of the Select Committee on Financial Transparency, investigating the source of the previous Liberal Deficit. In the course of the Financial Transparency Committee, Baber questioned the former Premier Kathleen Wynne, as well as former Minister of Energy Glenn Thibeault.[18][19][20][21] In 2019, The Hill Times reported that Baber is organizing a campaign to oust Andrew Scheer as Leader of the Conservative Party and "reshape the party as one more friendly to “Millennial, Women, LGBTQ and Urban Voters" during the April leadership review.[22]

According to the Globe and Mail, in April 2019, Baber was asked by Premier Ford to review the Government's Autism plan. Baber's review, later termed the “Baber Report” was provided anonymously to the Globe and Mail after it was shared with the Government's Autism Advisory Panel.[23][24][25][26][27]

Baber's Report called for an immediate reset to the Government's Autism plan, saying the government's messaging on the topic was inaccurate and the plan would leave some families “destitute.” Baber also wrote that the government's repeated suggestion that 23,000 children were on the waitlist for service was “unverified and is likely inaccurate.” [23]

The Baber Report included a detailed analysis and sweeping suggestions for an alternative plan. Baber proposed a needs-based program to “treat as many children as possible given the capacity and monetary limitations of the program.” [23]

Within days of the leak of the Baber Report, multiple Ontario autism advocates called for the government to adopt the Baber Plan, especially since it was written by one of their own.[28]

On July 29, 2019, the Ontario government apologized to the families of autistic children for the initial Plan and acknowledged that the changes to the autism program announced earlier this year were poorly conceived.[29]

The Ontario Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Todd Smith said the government would reverse its direction and provide families with funding based on the needs of individual children. According to the Global & Mail “the government's change in direction comes after months of protests from parents, and the Baber review obtained by The Globe and Mail, that called for an immediate reset of the government's strategy. The revised framework announced by the government would be needs-based, sustainable, within $600 million and would treat as many children as possible.[29]

• Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history