Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty apologized Sunday to a young job applicant who received an e-mail from a cabinet staffer referring to him as a "ghetto dude."
Evon Reid, who is one credit short of a political science degree from the University of Toronto, applied for a position as a media analyst with the Ontario government and last week e-mailed the cabinet office to follow up. Aileen Siu, an office worker, replied: "This is the ghetto dude that I spoke to before."
Ms. Siu intended to forward the message to co-workers, but mistakenly sent the response to Mr. Reid, who is black.
Sunday, Mr. McGuinty phoned Mr. Reid and "apologized for the completely unacceptable incident ... and he thanked Evon for having the courage to go public," said Chris Morley, a spokesman for Mr. McGuinty.
The Premier was unavailable for an interview Sunday, Mr. Morley said.
The head of Ontario's public service, Tony Dean, sought to contain the controversy Sunday, releasing a statement apologizing for the "inexcusable and deeply regrettable" e-mail.
"We are working to make our recruitment programs as open as possible for new entrants," Mr. Dean wrote. "We have made diversity a priority ... We obviously have more work to do in ensuring that every member of Ontario's Public Service understands and shares these values and objectives."
Earlier, cabinet officials tried to minimize the incident, noting that Ms. Siu is a part-time contract employee, and not a manager.
Opposition Leader John Tory said it's important for the Premier to "set the standard" and apologize, and added that the offices involved should consider sensitivity training for employees.
"That kind of language or inference is not acceptable," Mr. Tory said. "There's an awful lot of people struggling to get an opportunity, to get a hand up. They're not looking for a handout, they're just looking for a fair chance."
While Ontario leaders tend to be self-congratulatory about the successes of multiculturalism in the province, Mr. Tory said, this incident serves as a reminder that "we've got a long way to go in terms of real inclusion."
Youth leader Kehinde Bah said that as someone who's been stereotyped as a "ghetto dude" himself, said such labels are a sad fact of life.
"People are always reminding you of where you come from. It's just something you feel it's in people's language. It's subtle," said Mr. Bah, co-ordinator and co-founder of the Remix Project, which helps young people develop careers in the urban culture industry - everything from music production to graphic design to business management.
"It sucks having to be aware of all that, having to play that game," Mr. Bah said, adding, however, that he believes young, black Canadians are increasingly well-equipped to overcome such casual racism.
"It's not going to stop us from pursuing positions of power," Mr. Bah said.