You must resign! Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Leece called out for Participation in Slave Auction events

BY PAUL JUNOR

The revelations of Stephen Leece Ontario Education Minister participated in a slave auction during his time as Frat House Leader caught many people by surprise.

A report by Mitchell Thompson and Luke LeBrun on in PressProgress revealed that while serving as president of Sigma Chi fraternity’s Epsilon Omicron chapter during the late 2000s, he participated in a slave auction.

In the report, Stephen Leece is quoted as saying, “Sigma Chi is one of the oldest active fraternities on campus. Our alumni brothers who range from academic scholars, corporate executives, philanthropists, politicians, and community leaders continue to live the values they have learned through Sigma Chi many years ago”

From archived postings on Sigma Chi‘s website, there are indications that several slave auctions was held during his Leece’s tenure as frat leader. On November 28^th, 2006, a slave auction was conducted after which on November 30^th, a “ Slave Day” was held. The name “Stephen Leece” can be seen on the website as one of the “slaves” who was auctioned off. Subsequently, at the next year’s “slave auction” there is the mention of “Brother Stephen “ as one of the slaves.

Stephen Leece graduated in 2008 and became an aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and after the 2018 Ontario provincial election became one of the members of the PC-led Ford government. There have been diverse reactions to this recent revelation. Nigel Bariffe, President of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) told PressProgress, “It’s extremely worrying that this guy has been in charge of the largest school system in Canada for the past four years.”

Nigel expressed concerns about Leece’s symbolic gestures to the Black community. He states, “We’re talking about a frat boy that is trying to maintain power. He’s been using a divide and conquer tactic within the Black community throwing pennies at non-profit organizations, but at the same time they continue to undercut public education by holding back a hundred million dollars.”

Minister Leece apologized for the slave auction incidents. He states, “The event from 2006 was inappropriate and in no way reflects who I am as a person, which is why I unreservedly apologize. I will continue to passionately advance the interests of all Ontarians- irrespective of faith, heritage, orientation, or race.”

William observes that Minister Leece in no way accepts responsibility for what he did. He notes that this was 16 years ago during which Leece was aware of what he did. William states in the article, “After a few days of silence, his boss, Doug Ford told the press that Stephen Leece has his full support. He’s apologized, so let’s just move on.”

The Black Caucus of the NDP has called on Minister Leece to resign. They wrote, “Mr. Leece chose to lead and participated in events that mocked and trivialized this painful history. He also chose to conceal them for years as a public official, as a Minister charged with the education, opportunity, and well-being of Black students, and as the person tasked with overseeing the province’s investigations into anti-Black racism in schools. All of these actions are repulsive and constitute clear anti-Black racism.”