Community Safety and Corrections Minister Michael Tibollo is pictured wearing a bulletproof vest while visiting Toronto's Jane and Finch neighbourhood. Premier Doug Ford tweeted the picture on July 7, 2018. Source: @fordnation/TWITTER.

TORONTO— Doug Ford’s minister responsible for Ontario’s anti-racism directorate is under fire for comments about wearing a bulletproof vest when visiting Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood.

“I was appalled,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath after question period on Wednesday.

“It is absolutely unacceptable to make an insinuation that going in to a highly racialized community is going to necessitate the wearing of a bulletproof vest. It is a racist comment and it’s one that he should apologize for and withdraw immediately.”

Rookie MPP and community safety and correctional services minister, Michael Tibollo, used a question about whether his government would bring back carding to talk about the Jane and Finch neighbourhood.

[READ MORE: Ford’s comments on black community prompt call for apology]

“Will you be making changes to allow even more carding to take place on Ontario streets or will you work to stamp out carding,” NDP legislator Kevin Yarde asked during question period.

Tibollo’s response was to talk about a ride-along he did with the Toronto police.

“I want to reassure everyone that the focus of this government is to ensure that safety is paramount in all communities. Personally, I went out to Jane and Finch, put on a bulletproof vest and spent 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock in the morning visiting sites that had previously had bullet-ridden people killed in the middle of the night,” he said.

“The police need tools to work with. They’re doing an incredible job ensuring that our streets are safe. I’m not a police officer but what I can tell you is they need skills, they need tools to work with. Our work will be to ensure, working with the communities, that we build trust and that we have those tools provided to them to be able to do their jobs properly.”

His comments are being slammed as stigmatizing, insensitive and compromising for a minister explicitly tasked with rooting out racism in Ontario. Yarde, who claims to have been carded by police, said he doesn’t believe Tibollo has the credibility to remain in charge of the anti-racism file.

“I don’t think he’s qualified for this position,” Yarde said. “He doesn’t appear to be qualified. The things he’s been saying lets everybody know he’s not qualified.”

Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter stopped short of calling the comments racist and avoided answering whether Tibollo can still lead his portfolio, but said his comments are “completely unacceptable” because they “stigmatize a community” and “reinforce stereotypes that actually are not reflective of the community.”

Tibollo said his comments were “not at all” insulting, that he stood by them and he doesn’t think they pose a problem as he leads the anti-racism directorate.

“The first place I went to was the place where I saw the greatest harm, the greatest activity, I plan to be in Ottawa this weekend, I plan to be in Windsor, I’ll go to Brampton, I plan to tour the entire province,” he said.

He said if Ottawa police give him a bulletproof vest to wear when he tours that city he will wear it.

In a tweet later on Wednesday he dismissed “any attempt to spin my comments” as “petty partisan politics.”

The NDP called for the government to revisit his comments in a brief debate Wednesday evening. Tibollo didn’t show but his parliamentary assistant Prabmeet Sarkia was on hand to give a forceful defence of his comments.

Sarkaria: the leader of the opposition should be ashamed of herself, but that would require the leader of the opposition to have some shame #onpoli — Marieke Walsh (@MariekeWalsh) July 18, 2018

Sarkaria accused the NDP of “chasing headlines” rather than being interested in tackling the root of the problem which is gun violence.

He said the issue should be that the minister needed to wear a bulletproof vest not that he wore one, adding the government would devote more resources to police in order to get “more boots on the ground.”

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