Goldie Ghamari

Ghamari came to Canada at age one, after an assassination attempt against her father in their native Iran.^[5] Her family sought to flee Iran following the revolution in 1979 and the subsequent Iran-Iraq War.

She holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a juris doctor from the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Common Law.^[6] Ghamari was called to the bar of Ontario in 2013 and practised international trade law before running for provincial office.^[7]

Ghamari received her law licence in 2013 but had eight "administrative" suspensions between June 2017 and July 2019 for issues such as failure to pay annual fees or file annual reports.^[2]

In its March 30, 2021, decision, the tribunal ruled that Ghamari, who had by then become the Progressive Conservative MPP for Carleton, had failed to co-operate with a professional conduct investigation and that this failure itself amounted to professional misconduct.^[2] The panel found that she had repeatedly ignored or only partially complied with requests for information and documents, including her call and text logs with the complainant over a six-month period, and described her approach as "utterly stonewalling" the investigation.^[2] Ghamari told the tribunal that she had been experiencing mental health challenges following an unexpected divorce and was concerned about the political consequences of disclosing her records; she said she was willing to share details in camera.^[8] The Law Society suspended her licence to practise law until she complied with the outstanding disclosure orders.^[9]

Allegations, according to the Law Society's draft order and sworn affidavits, cited that a former client had filed a complaint alleging that he had paid her a retainer in 2017 to help him pursue a real estate-related claim.^[10]

Ghamari maintained her refusal to provide certain information citing a PC Party confidentiality pact.^[11]

In February 2018, Ghamari alleged that Randy Hillier, MPP for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, intimidated her and tried to encourage her not to seek public office. She said the encounter occurred during the 2016 Ontario PC Party convention in Ottawa. As a result of the allegations, there was an internal party investigation, but the party found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Hillier.^[12]

Ghamari was first elected to represent the riding of Carleton in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario during the 2018 general election as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.^[13] She was re-elected in the 2022 election.^[14]

As an MPP, Ghamari has stated that it was unacceptable that students in the suburban areas of Ottawa lacked access to adequate school bus services.^[15] She has also advocated for laws to ensure that children be required to wear lifejackets while in lakes or boating activities.^[16]

According to analysis of Elections Ontario filings, Ghamari was among a group of Progressive Conservative candidates who failed to file their 2022 campaign finance returns by the initial deadline, resulting in the loss of a quarterly public allowance payment to their riding associations.^[17]

On June 28, 2024, Ontario premier Doug Ford issued a statement that Ghamari had been removed from the Progressive Conservative caucus, citing "repeated serious lapses in judgement".^[18] Ghamari had recently had a virtual meeting with Tommy Robinson, the founder and former leader of the far-right English Defence League, ostensibly to discuss the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.^[18] Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has a history of convictions on a number of offences in the United Kingdom and, just days before the meeting with Ghamari, had been arrested in Calgary for misrepresenting himself to immigration officials while entering Canada for a speaking tour sponsored by right-wing media outlet Rebel News.^[19]

After Ghamari posted on social media about their meeting, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) urged the Ford government to remove Ghamari from its caucus, reminding them of Robinson's record of anti-Muslim activism and criminal convictions. Ford's office initially said in a written statement that the premier was "extremely disappointed" in Ghamari's decision to give a platform to someone whose behaviour and beliefs were at odds with those of the government, and that her later denials "speaks volumes about her judgment and honesty".^[20][21] A more detailed statement from the premier's office described the move as the culmination of "repeated instances of serious lapses in judgment and a failure to collaborate constructively with caucus leadership and as a team member" and said that Ghamari could no longer continue in her role within the PC caucus.^[4]

In 2018, Ghamari stated at a debate in Ontario that while climate change is real, it is not human-caused. "I believe climate change is real. I don't believe climate change is man-made and I certainly don't believe that the people of Carleton are at fault for climate change," Ghamari stated. These comments contradict the scientific consensus on climate change.^[22]

In November 2023, Ghamari came under controversy after the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council (CMPAC) and the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) alerted the Ontario cabinet about her social media postings.^[23] Ghamari wrote on Twitter that the Muslim prayer "Allahu Akbar" was a safety concern and said that the hijab was a "symbol of the subjugation of women".^[23] NCCM called her comments Islamophobic and urged Ford to remove her from caucus, saying her posts recycled "dangerous rhetoric" about Muslims and risked fuelling hatred.^[23]

In October 2025, a short video posted by Ghamari on social media in which she warned Americans that Muslims praying in public were trying to "assert their religious dominance" and "turn [the] country into Sharia law" went viral and was widely criticised. Coverage of the incident in international media described the clip as fuelling an Islamophobic row and reigniting debate about anti-Muslim sentiment in Western politics.^[24]

A critic of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ghamari accused, in November 2023, the Ontario New Democratic Party MPP Joel Harden of being "a mouthpiece for the [...] Islamic Regime in Iran's [...] propaganda", as well as accusing MPP Sarah Jama of being a "terrorist sympathizer".^[23] Her comments drew further criticism from CMPAC and NCCM, which argued that she was smearing political opponents and normalising the conflation of Muslim or pro-Palestinian advocacy with terrorism.^[23] She is also a supporter of Reza Pahlavi, the last Crown Prince of Iran.^[25] During the 2025–2026 Iranian protests and the ensuing 2026 Iran massacres, Ghamari stated that "Iranians are more determined than ever to overthrow the Islamic Republic".^[26]

In April 2026, Ghamari claimed that Canadian police had warned her that she could face criminal charges over tweets she made calling for the bombing of mosques in Iran unless she deleted them.^[27]

In September 2024, the Canadian Press Freedom Project reported that, after Toronto journalist Samira Mohyeddin criticised one of Ghamari's social media posts about Israel and Gaza, Ghamari responded on X by posting the name of a restaurant owned by Mohyeddin's family and writing that she was "looking forward" to visiting while wearing an Israel-themed hoodie.^[28] Mohyeddin told the organisation that she found the post "threatening" and described it as an example of doxxing by a sitting MPP.^[28] The Canadian Press Freedom Project classified Ghamari's post as a "chilling statement" toward a journalist.^[28][29]

In the early hours of October 8, 2024, the restaurant's windows were smashed and the interior ransacked by an unknown assailant. Mohyeddin said she "cannot in any way prove that Goldie Ghamari is responsible" for the vandalism and was not making such an accusation, but argued that the public identification of her family's business by an elected official had put them at greater risk.^[28] Ghamari later wrote on X that she condemned "all forms of violence" and urged that security camera footage be released to identify the perpetrators.^[28][29]