treatment of Mr. Arnold Minors, the controversial Bermudian member of the Toronto Metro Police Services Board.

Meanwhile, Canadian government inquiries into recent remarks attributed to him continued this week, a spokeswoman from the Attorney General's office said.

Toronto media reports that Mr. Minors had been fired from the police board were "all wrong'', she said.

A Toronto coalition of black community groups called a news conference last week to declare their support for the anti-racism consultant.

And the publisher of Share, Canada's largest ethnic newspaper, declared in an editorial, "White media can't silence Black voices''.

"The only reason for the continuous and vengeful attacks on Minors is that he dares to speak out against racism and discrimination perpetrated on segments of our community, in a way that makes some people very uncomfortable,'' wrote Mr. Arnold Auguste in last Thursday's addition of Share.

He asked, "What is it with the White Toronto media and Black people? "No sooner than any Black person dares to speak out on any subject with which certain members of the mainstream media are not comfortable, they lash out -- collectively -- with the same ferocity and venom with which they go after Black criminals.'' Ontario Premier Bob Rae had launched two separate inquires into remarks reportedly made by Mr. Minors.

One of the probes is being carried out by the Attorney General's, which gave Mr. Minors a lucrative contract to teach race relations courses to Crown attorneys.

The black coalition charged the Toronto media was carrying out "a systematic and well-orchestrated strategy'' to "discredit and destroy'' Mr. Minors, reported the Toronto Star, one of the newspapers included in the coalition's criticism.

"We strongly condemn the recent vitriolic attacks by the media and the unfair action of some government officials towards Mr. Minors,'' coalition spokesman Mr. Akua Benjamin said at the conference.

The 48-year-old graduate of Berkeley Institute, who left Bermuda for Canada in 1964, sparked major controversy in Toronto when he compared the city's Police force to "occupying armies'' in trying to explain why the black community was not helping police investigating a murder.

He had previously stirred controversy when he reportedly said the Holocaust was not a racist act while giving an anti-racism seminar to Crown attornies.

Mr. Minors denied making the latter remark.

But the Attorney General's cancelled his four remaining anti-racism seminars.