NDP calling for Premier to fire speechwriter following controversial essay
Posted June 25, 2020 12:07 pm.
Last Updated June 25, 2020 7:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
EDMONTON (660 NEWS) – The Premier is facing calls to fire his speechwriter after a controversial article came to light.
In 2013, Paul Bunner wrote an article for the conservative-leaning publication C2C Journal.
In the article, Bunner argued residential schools were a good thing, and calls claims that the schools destroyed Indigenous culture a “bogus genocide story.”
He adds that there is also “aboriginal terrorism”, and the schools “rescued” children from violent reserves.
Opposition NDP leader Rachel Notley has called the piece painful and profoundly racist and is troubled the Premier has chosen to work so closely with someone who holds these views.
“It is disturbing to think of how many of the Premier’s public statements over the past year have been composed by someone who harbours such hatred towards Indigenous people,” Notley said.
Premier Jason Kenney said he disagrees with comments made by Bunner in 2013, but resisted demands to fire him.
Kenney says the policy of his government is clear — it denounces the horrors of the residential schools and the institutionalized racism that supported them.
He adds that the best way forward is for everyone to work together and listen.
The article came to light less than a week after another Kenney appointee resigned.
Leighton Grey was appointed to a panel that helps pick Alberta judges, but stepped down on June 18 after numerous racist, sexist and anti-Semitic social media posts were made public.
“Jason Kenney must fire his speechwriter Paul Bunner without delay and apologize to residential school survivors in Alberta,” Notley said. “He must apologize to all Albertans for once again appointing someone with a public record of racism to a position of power in his government.”
Notley is expected to speak more about the issue before Question at 1:20 Thursday afternoon.
— with files from The Canadian Press
