EDMONTON — Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation Chief Sheldon Sunshine claims Premier Danielle Smith's Executive Director, Bruce McAllister, must apologize for using "racist language" when criticizing Alberta First Nations chiefs who hurled allegations of treason at Smith. "If yesterday's comments by Bruce McAllister, executive director of Danielle Smith's office, were made by a senior staffer in a Premier's office in any other province, they would be fired," wrote Sunshine in a statement on Friday. .His comments are the latest round of shots fired between First Nations leaders and the UCP, after the chiefs passed a resolution on Wednesday calling for the RCMP to investigate Smith and her party for treason over her decision to "intentionally violate treaty rights" by calling for an independence referendum. "This is such a bad look for these Chiefs," wrote McAllister on X on Thursday in response to an article about the Chiefs’ resolution. "People are sick and tired of hearing unrealistic demands from them.""It might be tolerable if their communities were beacons of prosperity, safety, strong families and real accountability, but sadly, they’re anything but." He went on to list problems among First Nations people, such as high levels of addiction and overdose deaths, poverty, unemployment and welfare traps, kids being taken to foster care, housing issues, lacklustre education and elevated domestic violence rates. The advisor then said he knew Smith was working to help solve the above-mentioned issues before asking why they were hurling insults rather than working with the government to find solutions. "The gall to call a sitting premier treasonous - all because you disagree with a policy," McAllister wrote. "And it’s a policy that gives a say to the people! It is the very thing they claim to stand for? Makes you wonder who these guys are taking their orders from. It surely isn’t their own people." .Sunshine responded by declining to address McAllister's direct claims and instead calling on him to apologize for them. "We cannot afford to normalize this type of racist language in Alberta," Sunshine wrote. "We see what happens when this is accepted south of the border. It's a slippery slope." Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi adopted a more venomous tone in response to McAllister's comments, saying that if the advisor had worked for him, he would have been fired "long ago." "But this is not just Bruce McAllister, the premier herself, you know, she's a brilliant communicator, except when she isn't, and if she is ever challenged, she lashes out at her opponents," said Nenshi on Friday. "She told the chiefs to check themselves. How about you check yourself, Danielle Smith?" .Friday's punchy comments cap off a week that, along with the war of words between the leaders, began with the Sundre Pro Rodeo Parade being cancelled after volunteers faced online harassment over the initial denial and then reversal of their decision to reject a pro-Alberta float. The energy comes as Albertans engage in polarizing debates about Alberta independence, which are only expected to intensify in the five months remaining before the October referendum vote. According to Nenshi, Smith and other conservative leaders have helped create the contention in Alberta by using anger to inflame Albertans. "It works in the short term, that's why they do it," Nenshi said when the Western Standard asked him about the need for civility in Alberta. "But ultimately anger burns itself out, and if you're running an entire campaign, an entire government based on, 'Don't trust anybody, don't trust the media, don't trust academics, don't trust scientists, don't trust the opposition, don't trust teachers. The only person you can trust is me.’ Guess what, at some point, people trained not to trust anyone, won't trust you anymore." Nenshi said leaders need see what they have done to fuel the situation."I'm really hopeful that the pendulum is swinging, but I also think that politicians, and particularly the premier, but all of us need to take a long, hard look at ourselves and say, 'What have we done to inflame this?'” Nenshi said."And how do we work with people to understand that we get to live in the best place on earth, we get to live under that giant blue sky, and we get to build this place together, and how do we do that?"
