TORONTO - A University of Toronto honours student applying for a job at Queen's Park will receive an apology from the government after he was referred to as a "ghetto dude'' in an email from a part-time contract employee in the cabinet office.
Evon Reid, who is black, was waiting to hear about his application for a job with the Ontario government as a media analyst when he received the email Friday.
"This is the ghetto dude that I spoke to before,'' Aileen Siu, a cabinet office worker, wrote as she forwarded a query from Reid about the job to another person.
Cabinet office manager Craig Sumi has already left a voicemail with Reid apologizing for the note, which Siu insisted was sent by mistake and didn't refer to anyone "outside my circle of friends.''
On Saturday, when Reid returned to his Malvern home after attending church with his family, he found a voicemail from Giles Gherson, deputy minister of communications in the cabinet office, saying he'd like the chance to apologize in person.
Reid, a 22-year-old political science major and self-confessed "political junkie,'' said he remains interested in landing the media analyst job.
He told the Toronto Star that the reference to "ghetto dude'' is the kind of slight that keeps young black men from getting a job in the first place.
In a press release, Progressive Conservative leader John Tory said the premier should apologize directly to Reid for the "outrageous and offensive way'' that the job application had been treated by McGuinty's office.
Tory also called on the premier to commit to address "issues of insensitivity which clearly seem to exist in his own office.''
