'Communications failure': UCP minister tells reporters to stop asking about essay award

A UCP MLA shook her head in frustration and said "wow" while walking away from a microphone Friday, as the fallout continued over an "abhorrent" essay that her government awarded.

Whitney Issik, minister of environment and parks, twice told reporters to stop asking her questions about the controversy. She is the first UCP minister to make herself available to journalists since the story broke earlier in the week.

"A mistake was made and an error was made, and they've apologized for it," Issik said.

"I think that should be our last question on that issue."

But the inquiries kept coming about the third-place winner in the “Her Vision Inspires” contest, particularly how the government could award such words and if anyone would be demoted because of it.

The essay written by S. Silver has been called sexist and racist for stating that "women are not exactly equal to men." It also asked women to have more children because we should not "import foreigners to replace ourselves."

"Personally, I do not hold any of the beliefs that were expressed in that essay," Issik said.

On Tuesday, the associate minister for the Status of Women, Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk, apologized for the award, but neither she nor Premier Jason Kenney have made themselves available for questions.

Issik instead wanted reporters to ask her about an economic development initiative she was announcing on the outskirts of Edmonton, but none came until a government staff member stepped to the microphone to ask one.

When the essay contest was launched, Issik was the associate minister for the Status of Women, but said she wasn't aware of what any submission said until the controversy erupted Tuesday.

Issik was asked whether or not Armstrong-Homeniuk and fellow MLA and contest judge Jackie Lovely should resign.

"The two women, Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk and Jackie Lovely, have both said unequivocally that it was an error and they have apologized, and to me, that's the end of it," Issik stated.

'LEGITIMATE QUESTIONS BEING ASKED'

Meanwhile, a pair of political scientists agreed Friday that there were unanswered questions. They also concurred that the government has not handled the situation well.

"They haven't taken responsibility. In a case like this, you want to put distance between the government and the decision that was made, then the (associate) minister should step down," said Lori Williams from Mount Royal University.

"It's expected that the government would try to set it aside or focus on something else. But there are legitimate questions being asked about a government that's made a decision to give an award to somebody who's written an essay that contains very sexist and racist remarks."

Williams called the UCP's reaction to the outrage a "communications failure" for not making the people responsible available to take questions from journalists.

Political scientist Lisa Young agreed, saying the government is "extending the pain" of a mistake by simply emailing apologies and hoping to move on.

"If the government is committed to women's equality, then presumably the premier would remove (Armstrong-Homeniuk) from this role, but he's made it fairly clear that he's not going to. So we're left with this situation," she said.

Young added that the government was not immediately forthcoming on details like who judged the contest and how many entries there were, which she believes also made people angrier.

"Government can't simply pick and choose the questions that it wants to answer," Young said. "Government should expect journalists to do their jobs, which is to try to understand what happened."

Issik suggested Friday that reporters ask questions of speaker Nathan Cooper, but in a statement to CTV News Edmonton he pointed out that his office posted the awards but did not judge them. He called the essay "abhorrent" and said he had it removed from a government website.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski