EDITORS NOTE: The following news story has been updated with comments from NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notleyand Premier Jason Kenney.The CBC and NDP is blasting a member of Jason Kenney’s staff for having written a 2013 article calling the theory that Canada committed genocide against First Nations “bogus”. The story was shared by several senior NDP MLAs and Opposition Leader Rachel Notley, with several labeling the staffer a “racist”..According to the CBC, Jason Kenney speech writer Paul Bunner wrote an article for C2C Journal in 2013. The offending words argue that Canada is not a genocidal state, and that teaching that it is, is dangerous..“Vast swathes of the public education system are uncritically regurgitating the genocide story as if it were fact,” wrote Bunner..He goes on to say that if indigenous youth are “indoctrinated” in the belief that Canada wilfully tried to annihilate their ancestors it could make them “ripe recruits” for potential violent insurgencies..“The bogus genocide story of the Canadian Aboriginal residential schools system is an insult to all of us, Native and non-Native, dead or alive, who are justifiably proud of the peaceful, tolerant, pluralistic history and values of our great country.”.NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley issued a lengthly statement demanding that Premier Kenney fire Bunner..“It is painful to read something as profoundly racist as the words Mr. Bunner wrote and published…It is disturbing to think of how many of the premier’s public statements over the past year have been composed by someone who harbours such hatred towards indigenous people.” said Notley..“Jason Kenney must fire his speechwriter Paul Bunner without delay and apologize to residential school survivors in Alberta. And he must apologize to all Albertans for once again appointing someone with a public record of racism to a position of power in his government.”.NDP finance critic and former environment minister Shannon Philips said that Bunner’s argument against Canada as a genocidal state makes him a “racist”..At a Thursday afternoon press conference said he hadn’t read the article yet but “fundamentally disagreed” with it’s content..He didn’t address whether or not he would fire Bunner..Last year, the Trudeau government’s National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls claimed that Canada was a genocidal state and tries to systemically destroy First Nations People..To date, no evidence has been presented that has lead to charges of Crime Against Humanity against any Canadian official..The CBC article has led to calls from the NDP and professors for Kenney to fire Bunner..Kenney’s office appeared to put some distance between the premier and Bunner..“Mr. Bunner is a speechwriter. He is employed to take the Government’s policy and put it into words. Mr. Bunner is not employed as a policy advisor nor is he involved in policy making, a spokeswoman told the CBC in an email..“I’ll also remind you that the Premier was a senior minister of the federal government which issued the apology and settlement. Elected officials set policy — not staff.”.Read the full CBC story here.
