TORONTO – Lecce, MPP for King-Vaughan and Minister of Education, had some of his unsavory past exposed to the embarrassment of all those associated with him, directly and indirectly. While at University, as a member of a fraternity for children of indulgent parents, he relished participating in games like “slave auction”. People were put up for sale and to do the bidding of the buyer for a determined period of time. We are in the twenty first century. 

No, it is not a peccadillo typical of idle youth with lots of time on their hands and even more family money to help them squander their assets and reputation. Some dismiss this dissolute, “frat boys” bonding exercises, and their excesses of “sex, drugs and rock and roll” as merely rites of passage.

These rites apparently represent a bonding exercise approaching “religion like obligation” to “sow [one’s] wild oats” before settling down to raise a family. They shape future character traits. It’s the curse of all upwardly mobile families one, two or three generations removed from rustic economies and the tight moral strictures a’ la Cavalleria Rusticana that attempted to breed a sense of personal dignity and respect for others. It is from such humble and dignified origins that Lecce’s family, like so many others in the Italian community, originated.

Stephen Lecce’s participation in “slave auctions” is a total denial of those values. Slavery, at its core, is the reduction of another person’s value into nothing – chattel to be acquired or divested at one’s whim and pleasure, “raped” at another’s will with impunity, because that is the slave’s only purpose in life. No expeditious apology can hide the fact that Lecce’s conduct manifested when he was already an adult.

This is what the government values in its Minister of Education? Former Ryerson University cancelled its name because its namesake, Egerton Ryerson, set up the system of public education (pre-Confederation) some have chosen to associate with the evils visited on Indigenous peoples.

Will the self-styled political support groups like Nonnas for Stephen glory in the embarrassment he attracts to them? Their parents made sacrifices to escape the near-servitude and bondage in a semi-serfdom type society imposed upon them before the land reforms of the late Industrial Period in Italy.

Over 40,000 people in King-Vaughan have that same Italian heritage. He has been privileged to head one of the two most important ministries of government. What is Stephen Lecce’s contribution to the educational system?… Exactly. Readers of the Corriere Canadese will know why.

His moral compass and goals in life were shaped in the Sigma Chi frat house. Has he left it behind? No, according to a promotional video for Sigma Chi he authorized (to watch the video, click here).

As the old adage teaches, to whom much is given, much is expected. He does not appear to be up to the task, especially given his penchant for “moralizing” against others so that he gets his way. Of course, the other political parties are having a field day with his troubles.

He should leave before he tarnishes the political image of his colleagues and brings further shame on his [Italian]community.