Premier Kathleen Wynne was forced on the defensive at a Black community debate Wednesday night over continued concerns with street checks by police, along with systemic racism facing Blacks in schools and the correctional system.

As her New Democrat and Green Party rivals earned ready applause from a crowd of 300 for straightforward promises to end carding — in which officers have disproportionately targeted Blacks despite new provincial regulations limiting random stops — Wynne insisted that’s not as easy as it sounds.

“End it!” one man in the audience shouted, after the premier, seeking re-election June 7, said her government “is going to continue to work to solve this challenge.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford also got a rough ride in the form of loud boos from the crowd for skipping the debate because of a northern Ontario campaign swing.

On carding, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said it’s time to shut down the “unconstitutional” practice because it undermines the Black community, particularly youth.

“Let’s build them up instead of tearing them down,” she told the event hosted by Black Vote Canada and other groups at the Jamaican Canadian Association hall near Hwy. 400 and Finch.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner proposed mandatory anti-racism training for police to accelerate a “culture shift” and destruction of all data gathered through street checks.

Wynne, whose Liberals have been in power since 2003, accused her rivals of taking a simplistic approach to the issue.

“There is a culture shift that has not yet been completed” within police forces, Wynne added. “I’d love to say we have a magic wand.”

She was also asked by debate moderator Royson James, a Toronto Star columnist, why the government has not done more to boost Black graduation rates in schools, lower expulsion rates and improve Black acceptance rates at universities — statistics he described as “crushing” and well below levels for whites.

“I feel that frustration,” Wynne replied to James, as another man in the crowd yelled “clueless!”

“Fifteen years,” interjected Horwath, a reference to the fact the Liberals under former premier Dalton McGuinty and Wynne have been in power since 2003.

“That’s going to be Andrea’s theme. I get that, Andrea,” the premier shot back in a testy exchange.

“I know there’s more to be done. I know we’re not there.”

The debate wasn’t the only such event in the spotlight Wednesday as Wynne challenged the absent Ford to “at least three” televised debates before the June 7 election.

Ford cheekily accepted.

“Let’s do the first one outside the jail where the senior Liberal operative will be spending four months,” the newly minted PC boss tweeted, referring to the sentence given to former McGuinty chief of staff David Livingston earlier in the day.

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Schreiner remarked on the irony of three white party leaders appearing before a mostly Black audience for almost two hours.

“None of us have experienced what it is like to live as a Black person in Canada.”

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