The Ontario Parliament Network (stylized ONT.PARL since 2018) is a

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, established in 1986 to broadcast the parliamentary proceedings of the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...

. It is available on all

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

providers in Ontario, as well as by

webcast A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...

. When the legislature is not sitting, the network broadcasts

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

hearings which take place in the Amethyst Room. Each Sunday, a

compilation Compilation may refer to: *In computer programming, the translation of source code into object code by a compiler **Compilation error **Compilation unit *Product bundling, a marketing strategy used to sell multiple products *Compilation thesis M ...

series called ''Sunday Encore'' rebroadcasts the highlights from the previous week.

Closed captioning Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio por ...

is also provided. The Ontario Parliament Network's coverage of

Question Period Question Period (french: période des questions), known officially as Oral Questions (french: questions orales) occurs each sitting day in the House of Commons of Canada, in which members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (i ...

is also aired from 3:00-4:00am the following morning on

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

stations. When meetings are adjourned and there are no sittings, the channel plays music in full-length albums and shows pictures in and around the building with scheduled sittings and events. This music includes jazz musicians like

Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian virtuoso jazz pianist and composer. Considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, ...

Moe Koffman Morris "Moe" Koffman, Order of Canada, OC (28 December 1928 – 28 March 2001) was a Canadians, Canadian jazz saxophonist and flautist, as well as composer and arranger. During a career spanning from the 1950s to the 2000s, Koffman was one of Cana ...

Ed Bickert Edward Isaac Bickert, (November 29, 1932 – February 28, 2019) was a Canadian guitarist who played mainstream jazz and swing music. Bickert worked professionally from the mid-1950s to 2000, mainly in the Toronto area. His international reputat ...

Lorne Lofsky Lorne Lofsky (born May 10, 1954) is a Canadian jazz guitarist who was a member of the Oscar Peterson Quartet. Lofsky began playing rock music at school dances but later took an interest in jazz after hearing the album ''Kind of Blue'' by Miles D ...

and Jim Galloway, and there are also classical, Latin, flamenco and British-style brass band albums. The classical performers include guitarists

Liona Boyd Liona Maria Carolynne Boyd, (born 11 July 1949) is a classical guitarist often referred to as the First Lady of the Guitar. Music career Early years Boyd was born in London and grew up in Toronto. Her father grew up in Bilbao, Spain, and her ...

and

Norbert Kraft Norbert Kraft (born 21 August 1950) is a Canadian guitarist, music teacher, producer and arranger. Life Born in Linz, Austria, Kraft's family emigrated to Canada in 1954. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music at Toronto with Carl van Feggel ...

, cellist

Ofra Harnoy Ofra Harnoy ( he, עופרה הרנוי; born January 31, 1965) is an Israeli-Canadian cellist. She is a Member of the Order of Canada. By joining the international artists roster of RCA Victor Red Seal, Harnoy became the first Canadian classica ...

, and trumpeter Johnny Cowell. Orchestras are the

Toronto Symphony Orchestra The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1906, the TSO gave regular concerts at Massey Hall until 1982, and since then has performed at Roy Thomson Hall. The TSO also manages the Toronto ...

Toronto Chamber Orchestra The Toronto Chamber Orchestra (formerly the Toronto Camerata) was founded by violinist and conductor Kevin Mallon. Style The orchestra reflects the period instrument Aradia Ensemble. Orchestra members play baroque instruments and perform in mus ...

, and

CBC Vancouver Orchestra The CBC Radio Orchestra was a Canadian orchestra based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that was operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Until the early 1980s CBC had a number of orchestras located in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Hal ...

and the brass band is the Hannaford Street Silver Band. Around Christmas time, the selection changes to Christmas-themed albums by the same people and shows pictures inside the building all decorated with Christmas garments and tree. New albums include jazz music performed by the University of Toronto 12tet and classical music performed by

Gryphon Trio The Gryphon Trio is a Canadian classical music ensemble that has been nominated for several and has won three Juno Awards for its classical recordings released by the Analekta label. Its members are Annalee Patipatanakoon (violin), Roman Borys (cel ...

and guitarist

Jeffrey McFadden Jeffrey McFadden is a Canadian classical guitarist, and a recording artist for Naxos Records. He is known for his recordings of works by composers of the romantic era such as Fernando Sor and Napoleon Coste. His latest recording features the wo ...

. The songs and names of albums are displayed when they start playing.

List of transmitters

In a number of small communities in

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Provi ...

without cable service,

also formerly operated

LPTV Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower broadcasting" (more commonly " ...

transmitters which broadcast the network as a conventional over-the-air signal. These transmitters operated with the call sign CJOL-TV. As well as the service's regular programming, the transmitters also leased broadcasting time to the

Wawatay Native Communications Society Wawatay Native Communications Society (Wawatay for short) was formed in 1974 by the people of Canada's Nishnawbe Aski Nation in the Kenora and Cochrane Districts of Northern Ontario, as a source of communications technology, namely radio, televis ...

, a producer of

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

television programming. In 1989, the service aired the first-ever television broadcast of a First Nations

pow-wow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an ...

."Following their heart home: The creative journey for Indian artists has many beginnings but a common path". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', 11 May 1996. In April 2012, TVOntario announced that it would be decommissioning all of its remaining analog transmitters and associated towers by October 2013 including towers that it owns, which would impact the Ontario Parliament Network, as it shares towers with TVOntario. As of December 2012, the Ontario Parliament Network only has 10 remaining over-the-air transmitters, according to Industry Canada's TV spectrum database.Broadcasting Database
/ref> Previously, there had been 32 transmitters with the call sign of CJOL-TV. As of 2015, it is uncertain if any of these remaining analog transmitters are still in operation.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Ontario
* * {{Legislative television channels in Canada Television channels and stations established in 1986 Commercial-free television networks Legislature broadcasters in Canada Music video networks in Canada Ontario government departments and agencies Television stations in Ontario TVOntario Legislative Assembly of Ontario 1986 establishments in Ontario