A very Liberal dinner

Secret convos

ABOVE THE FOLD

SET THE TABLE — VIKRAM HANDA, the outsider angling for the Ontario Liberal leadership, gathered legal experts and diverse community leaders for a closed-door “Unity Dinner” last night — an exercise his team describes as part listening tour, part policy workshop. And it’s saying a lot about how he’s positioning himself in the leadership contest.

The dinner produced a short list of recommendations aimed squarely at the Ford government, with a focus on hate-motivated incidents, access to justice and symbolic inclusion at Queen’s Park, particularly for South Asian communities.

Among the asks: Expanding culturally responsive legal aid and victim-support services — including language access, trauma-informed counselling and better-funded community legal clinics — alongside standardized data collection and public reporting on hate-motivated incidents across policing, courts and victim services.

“Better data would allow policymakers, service providers, and communities to respond b…