Doug Ford Refuses To Say If He Believes In Systemic Racism
TORONTO — Premier Doug Ford refused to say Tuesday if he believes racism is a systemic problem in Ontario.
Liberal MPP Michael Coteau raised the question at the legislature, noting that Ford declined to answer the same question shortly after he took office in 2018.
“I’ll ask you again: Do you believe that systemic racism and anti-Black racism is real? And if so, what are you going to do ... to combat these forms of racism?” Coteau asked.
“Please have the decency, premier, to answer this question. You owe it to so many people.”
Coteau’s question comes in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in the United States last week, and the days of demonstrations against anti-Black racism that have followed it.
Ford passed the question to Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, the cabinet minister in charge of safety, policing and corrections.
“I was very honoured when the premier appointed me solicitor general and with that responsibility came the anti-racism directorate,” Jones said. “There is nowhere in Ontario where hate and anti-Semitism and [racism] is appropriate.”
Coteau’s Liberal colleague MPP Mitzie Hunter then asked Ford what concrete steps he would take to eliminate racism in Ontario.
She said that Black people are “heartbroken” about Floyd’s death and noted that similar incidents have happened in Ontario. Patrick Shand, for example, was killed by security guards outside a Scarborough, Ont. Loblaws in 1999.
“He too said, ‘I can’t breathe.’ And moments later, he stopped struggling and he died,” Hunter said.
‘Nothing but disgusting’
The premier took that question and said his government has no tolerance for racism.
“What we saw down in the United States, what happened to Mr. Floyd, was nothing but disgusting,” Ford said. “And I think my friend over there knows … my family has always stood up for the Black community.”
He said Ontario is the “most diversified” jurisdiction in North America.
“That’s why 99...
