Ontario PC leader Doug Ford says he believes Stephen Lecce “regrets” his participation in the fraternity’s “slave auction” 18 years ago and will remain the party’s candidate in King Vaughn, despite opposition calls for his removal.
“He’s sorry,” Ford told reporters at a Kitchener bus stop Thursday morning. “That’s something he did when he was 19 at university.”
In 2006, Lecce led the Sigma Chi fraternity at Western University and participated in a “slave auction” where donors could hire members of the fraternity as “slaves” to carry out activities as part of a charity fundraiser.
The news was first announced by PressProgress on Sunday.
Lecce apologized for his participation in the event in a statement issued Tuesday night, saying it “does not in any way reflect who I am as a person.”
Black members of the NDP and other social groups, education union leaders and anti-racist advocates said the event and the like belittled and mocked the suffering suffered by racists during the transatlantic slave trade.
The NDP has called for the removal of Lecce as a candidate, something Ford says is not necessary.
“Let me tell you something about Stephen Lecce,” Ford said. “He was one of the strongest defenders of the fight against racism in schools – and he has my full support.”
Lecce is one of the leading holders of the PC who wants to be re-elected, having been Minister of Education for much of Ford’s first term as Prime Minister.
Against the backdrop of a tumultuous term as education minister, including employment contract negotiations and the ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lecce took action when confronted with allegations of racism in the province’s public schools.
He ordered an outside supervisor to take over the Peel County School Board when parents filed racist reports at schools there.
He also oversaw the abolition of streaming math, science and English streaming courses in early high school, something observers say has had a disproportionate impact on racist students.
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