NDP calls for resignation of government members who awarded controversial essay

 

The Alberta NDP has demanded resignation letters from leaders of the province's status of women department, who awarded an essay that claimed "women are not exactly equal to men" and suggested "foreigners" are used to "replace" Albertans.

Associate minister Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk and parliamentary secretary Jackie Lovely shouldn't "be anywhere near the status of women ministry," the NDP's children's services critic Rakhi Pancholi said Thursday.

The two MLAs confirmed they were the only politicians that judged the "Her Vision Inspires" essay contest and awarded an unknown writer, S. Silver, as the third-place winner.

Lovely apologized in a statement, to CTV News Edmonton, but she did not explain what happened with the contest.

"I regret that this essay was chosen and I apologize for my role in that," Lovely said. "As a single mother who has pursued a wide variety of traditionally male-dominated careers, I deeply understand the strength and ability of women.

"Also, as a former ESL teacher who has hosted 56 international students, I value and appreciate the role of newcomers in our province, and will continue working to remove barriers to equity and prosperity for all," she added.

Silver's essay argued women's professional aspirations distract from their reproductive responsibilities.

It also proposed it is "popular nowadays to think that the world would be better off without humans, or that Albertan children are unnecessary as we can import foreigners to replace ourselves. This is a sickly mentality that amounts to a drive for cultural suicide."

A UCP spokesperson told CTV News Edmonton that neither the party nor caucus had any involvement in the essay contest and that the contest generated five entries total, with the winners awarded $200 to spend at the Legislative Assembly of Alberta gift shop.

"The third-place essay was clearly not inspiring. It was misogynistic, sexist, racist, transphobic and fascist," Pancholi said.

In the background of her press conference loomed the Fort Saskatchewan hospital, whose labour and delivery ward have been closed due to a doctor shortage, which Pancholi called an example of the United Conservative government's ruinous effect on Alberta's health-care system.

"While the minister for the status of women was promoting essays stating women should be focused on their reproductive capacity, women and people who can get pregnant cannot give birth in her own riding," Pancholi said.

The NDPer called their resignations the "only option," given both MLAs have steadfastly refused to clarify the process and criteria by which the essays were selected as winners, who participated on the judging "panel," and how much the writers were awarded.

Although the contest website named the Canadian chapter of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) as a partner, the organization denied on Thursday any involvement.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski