Ontario appears unlikely to host a mandatory anti-racism conference in 2019, prompting fresh accusations that Premier Doug Ford’s government doesn’t take the anti-racism file seriously.

The annual conference — mandated under the former Liberal government’s three-year strategic plan to combat racism — was first hosted in December 2017.

No such event has been held since the Progressive Conservatives came to power in June 2018.

The conference brought community leaders, partners and experts together “to assess our anti-racism tools, strategies and frameworks, and provide the community experts and researchers (with) an opportunity to share their perspectives and feedback,” according to the anti-racism strategy.

When reached by iPolitics, Solicitor General Sylvia Jones’ office could not explain why no conference has been planned.

Press secretary Marion Ringuette said the department has “engaged broadly on the important priority of tackling racism in our communities and we will continue to do so.”

The NDP said there’s been nothing but silence from the Ford government on the conference and broader anti-racism strategy.

“I haven’t heard anything about the annual conference,” said Laura Mae Lindo, (Kitchener Centre) the NDP critic for anti-racism initiatives.

“I couldn’t tell you what’s happening with the strategy because this government has said nothing about it this past year.”

It’s not the first time the Ford government has faced accusations of neglecting the anti-racism file.

The government drew the ire of advocates and opposition parties when it eliminated subcategories of Ontario’s anti-racism directorate — anti-black racism, anti-Indigenous discrimination, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism — which provided advice to the government on eliminating systemic racism directed at those communities.

It also reduced the committee’s budget by $200,000 for the 2019/2020 term from $5.12 million to $4.92 million.

The solicitor general’s office said the cut was due to “funds that went unspent by the previous Liberal government,” but Lindo said anti-racism organizations are now struggling to find funding.

She referenced the case of Harmony Movement, a racial equity program providing training for teachers and students for 25 years that recently announced it was shutting down due to provincial funding cuts.

At the same time, advocates say cuts by the government to programs that disproportionately benefitted racialized communities are compounding the problem. For example, $84 million was cut from child welfare services, $133 million from legal aid funding and $25 million from specialized school programs that connected vulnerable teens with after-school jobs and programs.

Avvy Go, the founder of Colour of Poverty, called the cuts a “direct attack on racialized communities.”

“The decisions that the government has made so far (don’t) seem to suggest that they would give any kind of issue concerning racialized community much attention,” said Go, whose organization works to address poverty within racialized communities.

The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services has budgeted $10 million this year for anti-racism initiatives, including youth mentorship and career counselling in black communities — a slight increase from the Liberal government’s commitment of $19 million over two years.

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Go said the effort is a good start, but “cannot address issues which will arise with the larger cuts they already made.”

The former Liberal government passed landmark anti-racism legislation in 2017 after the anti-racism directorate hosted 10 community meetings across Ontario, where public input called for legislation to ensure long-term sustainability of the government’s anti-racism efforts.

In 2017, a report from the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent — which investigated systemic racism faced by African Canadians across the country in 2016 — praised the then-Liberal government’s plan for the anti-racism directorate, the strategic plan and new requirements for collecting race-based data across the health, education and social service ministries.

The health department said it does not collect race-based data under the Anti-Racism Act, explainingit infringes on Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act.

The education department said it is not collecting race-based data but is working with eight school boards to mandate other identity based-data collection across all schools by 2023.

The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services confirmed it continues to collect race-based data along with other information through the Children’s Aid Society.

Liberal MPP Michael Coteau (Don Valley East) said the government could be “breaching its legislation” by failing to collect proper data and not hosting the anti-racism conference.

“This file is not a part of their mandate. Either they don’t care, or they don’t agree with it, or they’ve just forgotten about it, but there’s nothing happening on the file,” said Coteau, who was responsible for the file under the Liberal government.

The anti-racism file was moved from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to the Office of the solicitor general during the cabinet shuffle in June 2019.

Jones is expected to meet with Lindo for a briefing on Thursday.

But after a year of silence, Lindo said she is skeptical about what will be presented.