Editorial

A devalued Order of Ontario

At first we couldn’t believe what we heard.

Was it a bad joke?

Then we made the proper checks and discovered that it was true.

Former Premier Mike Harris was nominated for the Order of Ontario.

Yes, the same racist Mike Harris from North Bay.

Now what could have possessed a fair, decent minded citizen from nominating  Harris for the highest honour in the province for individual excellence and achievement?

Sorry, we don’t have an answer for that question. No yet, anyway.

Many members of the Black and Indigenous communities in the multicultural Ontario in which we live, have  not forgotten the terrible cutbacks in services and social support of the Harris government.

As Black community activist  Louis March noted, radicalized communities are still trying to recover from the program cuts undertaken by Harris.

And in a news release, the Association of Iroquis and Allied Indians described Harris’s nomination as “an insult,’’ a “slap in the face to Indigenous people’’ and “a step back in reconciliation’’

We are now left to wonder who is the person who made the nomination and who are the two persons who presented signed testimonials in  support of the award.

We are also left to wonder whether the members of the Advisory Council were asleep when they were asked to consider the nomination.

Perhaps it is time that there should be more transparency about these awards.

We should be told who made the nomination for the Order of Ontario and who supported it.

We also would like to know how deserving recipients of the Order of Ontario feel about this devaluation  of the award ?

How many of them would now be prepared to return the award?

Go to hell, Mike Harris and take the now devalued award  from your friends with you.