Premier Doug Ford pointedly refused to distance himself from white nationalist Faith Goldy for a second day Tuesday, despite again being pressed by the opposition to denounce her.

Anti-hate, Jewish and Muslim groups are also urging the premier to disassociate himself from the far-right Toronto mayoral candidate, who posted a photo on social media showing her and her supporters alongside Ford at his annual barbecue on the weekend.

“Will the premier unequivocally denounce Faith Goldy and apologize for appearing in a photo that is now being used as a de facto endorsement of her campaign by the premier of our province?” New Democrat John Vanthof (Timiskaming-Cochrane) asked in the legislature.

“I totally denounce — I repeat denounce, denounce, denounce — anyone who wants to talk hate speech,” Ford said, without specifically naming Goldy.

“We have zero tolerance —— zero tolerance — for any hate speech. We won’t put up with it, and I denounce it ... I don’t know how much clearer I can be about that,” said the premier, who received a standing ovation from his MPPs, unlike the day prior.

When Vanthof pressed, saying, “You need to say her name, premier, that you do not endorse her,” Ford accused the NDP of playing politics.

NDP MPP Sara Singh (Brampton Centre) called Ford’s responses inadequate.

“He is sort of circling around the issue by saying that he’s going to denounce hate speech,” Singh said.

“What we asked him specifically to do was to denounce a person who has been in this province and across the world spewing hate and he failed to do that.”

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Bernie Farber, chair of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said Monday that Ford’s “refusal to disassociate himself with those who enable white nationalism should frighten us all into action.

“Much of my professional life has been dedicated to exposing and battling white supremacy and neo-Nazism,” tweeted Farber, a former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress. “Never in Canada has any mainstream politician given credence to those who associate with or enable white supremacy until today.”

The National Council of Canadian Muslims has also called on Ford to “categorically reject the hateful and divisive ideas of those, like Ms. Goldy.”

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On Monday, Ford told the legislature he had thousands of people seeking photos with him at Ford Fest.

Goldy was fired by Rebel Media last year after she went to Charlottesville, Virginia to cover the Unite The Right rally, then appeared on a podcast affiliated with The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

With files from Robert Benzie

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