'Clearly a breakdown': Kenney condemns controversial essay, links firestorm to slow news week
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney condemned a controversial prize-winning essay that's been criticized for being sexist and racist during his provincewide radio call-in program, but also appeared to downplay the controversy it generated.
The topic was the first that host Wayne Nelson raised during Saturday's show on CHQR and CHED, and Kenney responded there was “clearly a breakdown” in how the judges assessed the essays, adding they “screwed up.”
Nelson had noted in the opening of the program that while summer is often slow for news, the past few weeks bucked that trend.
Kenney, when talking about the essay controversy moments later, said the fuss could be proof that “it wasn't a big news week.”
The essay urged women to forgo careers and focus on having children so the province doesn't have to bring in more foreigners, and it took third place in a government contest.
It was later pulled, along with the other two winners, from the government's website after criticism emerged on social media Monday.
“Clearly the essay was offensive, but maybe that is proof that it wasn't a big news week, Wayne, that in Alberta politics driven by Twitter, we've been talking about the third place (in) an essay contest no one's ever heard of,” Kenney said when Nelson referred to the controversy as a “firestorm.”
Kenney said he's waiting to hear a report on how the essays were assessed.
The contest was run through the legislative assembly office, which is headed by Speaker Nathan Cooper.
The judges of the contest, Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk, the United Conservative Party's associate minister for the Status of Women, and Jackie Lovely, the department's parliamentary secretary, have issued statements. Armstrong-Homeniuk said the essay never should have been chosen. Lovely apologized for her role in the contest.
Cooper's office, in a statement Tuesday, said the contest was conceived and administered by Armstrong-Homeniuk in her role as regional chair of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians group. It added that neither the Speaker's nor the legislative assembly office were involved in picking the essays “in any capacity.”
There have been calls for Armstrong-Homeniuk and Lovely to resign, and Nelson asked Kenney if they should step down.
“Apparently there's a group called the Commonwealth Women's Parliamentary Association. The first time I heard of it was last week,” Kenney responded.
“This is not the government. People in the Legislature have different associations and they do different projects. This is one they screwed up. They've admitted that, they've apologized and committed to ensure it doesn't happen again,” Kenney said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 13, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Former Air Canada employees among suspects identified in gold heist at Pearson Airport: police
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year, Peel Regional Police said Wednesday.
MPs summon ArriveCan contractor to the House to be admonished in rare parliamentary display
Enacting an extraordinarily rarely used parliamentary power, MPs have summoned an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon to be admonished publicly for failing to answer their questions.
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
Gas prices across Ontario expected to climb to levels not seen since 2022, analyst says
Ontario is going to see a big jump at the pumps later this week as gas prices in the province hit levels not seen in nearly two years, according to one industry analyst.
Ancient skeletons unearthed in France reveal Mafia-style killings
More than 5,500 years ago, two women were tied up and probably buried alive in a ritual sacrifice, using a form of torture associated today with the Italian Mafia, according to an analysis of skeletons discovered at an archaeological site in southwest France.
'Enormous sum of money': Actor Hugh Grant settles privacy lawsuit against tabloid
British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspaper, The Sun, over claims journalists used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, he said on Wednesday.
O.J. Simpson was chilling with a beer on a couch before Easter, lawyer says. 2 weeks later he was dead
O.J. Simpson's last robust discussion with his longtime lawyer was just before Easter, at the country club home Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was 'transitioning.'
Some of the winners and losers in the 2024 federal budget
With a variety of fiscal and policy measures announced in the federal budget, winners include small businesses and fintech companies while losers include the tobacco industry and Canadian pension funds.
U.K. plan to phase out smoking for good passes first hurdle
The British government's plan for a landmark smoking ban that aims to stop young people from ever smoking cleared its first hurdle in Parliament on Tuesday despite vocal opposition from within Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party.