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
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.