Ontario Premier Urges Black Community to Hold Doug Ford Accountable

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: Eddie Grant   Ontario provincial party leaders: Kathleen Wynne of the Liberal Party, Andrea Horwath of the New Democratic Party and Mike Schreiner of the Green Party at the Black Community Provincial Leadership Debate on April 11, 2018.

Premier Kathleen Wynne, leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, wants the Black community to listen attentively to what Doug Ford, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party is saying on the campaign trail leading up to the June 7 general election.

“Doug Ford should be here and he should be held accountable,” she said in her closing remarks at the Black Community Provincial Leadership Debate – the first provincial leadership debate of the 2018 election – held at the Jamaican Canadian Centre in Toronto on April 11.

Earlier, she noted that: “The person who has said that he’s going to bring back carding and stop even trying to sort this out isn’t even here tonight, so that we have to recognize.”

There was an empty chair at the head table for Ford who was invited but declined, saying he had a campaign tour planned for northern Ontario.

Wynne alongside Andrea Horwath, leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party and Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party fielded questions from moderator, Toronto Star columnist Royson James, and from several members of the large audience in the auditorium.

Schreiner said the conversation was too important for anyone to skip and he sincerely wished all four party leaders were there.

Wynne said public funded education was the battleground for her work as a school trustee and informed her work when she became minister of education.

She said the Mike Harris government removed the word ‘equity’ out of all education documents and had put in place policies around student expulsion and suspension that were seriously disadvantaging black kids in the system.

The Liberal Party leader acknowledged the NDP’s establishment of an anti-racism secretariat when Bob Rae was the premier but noted that Harris removed it.

“We’re building back that capacity in government so that’s the work that I’ve been engaged in; it’s been really central,” she said.

Horwath said the election is about change, noting that too many people are not sharing in the prosperity in Toronto.

“When people see governments that ignore this reality for years on end, institutions that continue to fail to change and politicians who deliver nothing more than sound bite, well’ it’s no wonder that people become cynical about politics.”

 She said the NDP can deliver change in Ontario.

Schreiner noted that none of the leaders, who are all white, have experienced what it’s like to live as a black person in Canada.

“We don’t have to deal with carding or profiling. We don’t have to deal with the systemic racism that is part of the Black experience in Ontario.”

He said the Greens put social justice at the heart of what they do and “seek to find ways to connect and be allies with the people of colour in this city and across this province fighting for justice.”

Horwath described the Black community as a “pillar of strength” having a rich legacy of leaders who have built the province.

She said her platform will include a new Ontario anti-racism fund that will support community organizations doing work on the ground to fight racism and foster equity.

The NDP plans to invest $20million and Horwath believes the next premier must “stop arbitrary and discriminatory policies and that means ending carding.”

“The next premier must work to reconcile the injustices of generations of anti-Black racism and make sure that the anti-racism directorate has the resources it needs to do good work,” she said, noting that the directorate should have been doing that work since the 1990s.

Horwath noted that over the last five years, 48% of the students who were expelled from the Toronto District School Board were black, just 10% were white.

She said this was totally unacceptable and a product of anti-Black racism in schools.

Wynne said much of the work that she and her colleagues have begun is an acknowledgement of the realities that are underpinned by the United Nations Decade for People of African Descent.

She said the work that the anti-racism directorate is set up to do across government includes an allocation of $47 million going into seventy-four community organizations to do the work in community to facilitate better outcomes for young people and for families.

Horwath said she does not disagree with what Wynne talked about and if she becomes the premier, the NDP “won’t get rid of the good work that’s going on but we know there’s a lot more work that needs to happen.”

“I think one of the things that we need to do is remove the barriers to success, remove the barriers that are preventing people from achieving what they want to achieve their dream,” said Schreiner.

He said carding has to be eliminated and what he has heard from people is that the current restrictions are not enough.

“Carding is still happening and that data that was collected from carding needs to be destroyed so that data is never used again,” said the Green Party leader.

Schreiner also identified the streaming of black students out of academic programs in schools as an issue.

He said one of the reasons he got involved in politics was to fight to change the status quo because the statistics James quoted are unacceptable.

James noted that the Eglinton Crosstown LRT Project is “a terrific project that will add wonderful improvements to our community but the construction is threatening to destroy Black businesses in the area around Oakwood Avenue, also known as ‘Little Jamaica.’

He said many business owners who have been around since the 1970s are seriously considering closing shop – which could remove a vital and historic portion of Toronto’s Caribbean community and usher in gentrification.

“Did the province do enough to insulate these businesses, and as premier, what would you do retroactively and immediately to salvage these businesses and prevent their displacement?”

Horwath thinks the Community Benefit Agreements that are put together when these major infrastructure projects are undertaken need to be effective.

This means making sure that local communities are benefiting from the jobs that are being created on these projects, she said.

Schreiner said it is critical to start having a fund that is part of the infrastructure fund that provides cash flow relief to small businesses to help them survive these major disruptions.

“I think that, honestly, we got off to a very bad start, in terms of the relationship between Metrolinx and the local community. I think its gotten better, there’s a better understanding, there’s learning and the Community Benefits Agreements (CBA) that are in place are improving,” said Wynne.

She said there is more that the government can do but the concept of the CBA developed in partnership, is a good thing and they need to develop on it.

Denise Jones said advocacy to establish a museum of Black history and culture in southern Ontario has come from the Black community for many years.

“If elected, what will you do to make the museum not just a dream but a reality? And, more urgently, what plan do you have for sustained funding and promotion of black arts and culture to the benefit of Ontarians for the 1.4 million visitors we bring into this province every year?”

Schreiner said there needs to be more funding for the Ontario Arts Council and directed specifically to minority communities.

“The economic benefits for our local businesses of cultural activities is huge and so financial support to those activities not only benefits the communities whose culture we’re celebrating but it also can benefit those communities economically,” he said, giving support for the museum.

Wynne said the government has just increased the funding for the Ontario Arts Council by $50 million over the next few years and part of that money is targeted at racialized communities.

“I love the idea of the museum. I think it’s a great idea,” she said.

Horwath said the commitment to arts and culture needs to be started in schools and carried on throughout community.

“The other thing that we need to talk about is not just the Ontario Arts Council or the Ontario Media Development Corporation. What do those organizations look like? Who are on the boards of those organizations? Do they reflect the community? Is there a mandate for equity? Is there a commitment that every year of granting dollars there needs to be an equity lens put on those grants? These are the kind of systemic changes that we need to look at,” she said, noting the museum is long past due.

The debate was organized by Operation Black Vote Canada and a coalition of black organizations including: the Jamaican Canadian Association, Black Health Alliance, Canadian Association of Urban Financial Professionals, Black Business and Professional Association, Ontario Black History Society, Black Artists’ Networks Dialogue, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, First Fridays and Generation Chos3n.