FLAG FLAP CONTINUES
Carpay remains in UCP: Kenney
The UCP member who took heat for comparing the rainbow flag and the flags bearing Nazi and communist symbols is still a card-carrying member of the party, says Leader Jason Kenney.
“It’s our board that deals with expulsions,” Kenney told reporters Wednesday. “I condemned Mr. Carpay ’s remarks as being vile and offensive. He does not in any way speak for the United Conservative Party.
“He apologized for and retracted his offensive remarks.”
John Carpay, a lawyer and president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, issued a statement Sunday evening saying he wanted to clarify the remarks he made at a conference organized by the conservative news outlet Rebel Media in Calgary.
In the statement, Carpay says he was discussing the nature of totalitarianism when he “referred in the same sentence” to the rainbow flag and the flags bearing Nazi and communist symbols.
In doing so, he says he “unintentionally drew a broad comparison” between them at the conference held Saturday.
He said he meant to stress the need to defend fundamental rights such as free speech, and that slogans touting diversity and inclusion have been abused in ways that undermine those freedoms.
“We can’t possibly police what every one of our 141,000 members say every day,” Kenney said Wednesday. “We are a party that stands for human dignity.”
Carpay is behind a legal challenge to Alberta’s law on gaystraight alliances.
Rules introduced last year ban schools from telling parents if their children join the peer groups meant to make LGBTQ kids feel welcome and to prevent bullying.
A video of Carpay’s remarks, posted on You Tube by Rebel Media,shows him discussing the court case and suggesting the law on gay-straight alliances is “a type of law that they would have in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia.”
He later said: “How do we defeat today’s totalitarianism? Again, you’ve got to think about the common characteristics.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a hammer and sickle for communism, or whether it’s the swastika for Nazi Germany or whether it’s a rainbow flag, the underlying thing is a hostility towards individual freedoms.”
Carpay said in an email to Postmedia Wednesday that he had no further comment after his Sunday statement.
In October, Kenney said he instructed party members to strip the membership of former call centre employee Adam Strashok who had worked on his leadership campaign.
Kenney said he was “shocked and disturbed” by reports that the party member was linked to antiSemitic and white supremacist messages on social media as well as to an online store selling memorabilia glorifying white minorityrule in then-Rhodesia.
“I have since instructed party officials to cancel Mr. Strashok’s membership,” Kenney said in a statement Oct. 30.
“I recently also asked the board of the UCP to develop a process for screening applicants for membership to block those who have expressed hateful or extreme views.”
On Wednesday, Kenney told reporters revoking a membership wasn’t up to him.
A caucus spokesperson said Kenney had misspoken when he issued the statement about Strashok.
“Decisions regarding membership revocation are made by the board as a whole, of which Jason Kenney is a voting member and an influential voice,” said UCP president Erika Barootes in a statement.
Kenney was asked about the issue after delivering a speech to the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce that focused on the economy.
“The world needs ethically produced Canadian energy,” he told the 500-strong crowd, adding that Canada has been “too apologetic” for its energy resource industry on the global stage.
Kenney said the UCP will present a costed plan in the spring outlining the party’s goals if elected government, and reiterated that the first bill he introduces would repeal the carbon tax.
“Obviously we’ll be committed to restoring balance to our province’s finances,” he said.
He also repeated plans to create a well-resourced “war room” that would address energy issues at home and abroad.
He said the UCP would create a fund for pro-resource litigation.
“I think we need to go, frankly, on the offence to defend our right to get a fair price for our products,” he told reporters after the speech.
On Wednesday morning, Economic Development and Trade Minister Deron Bilous unveiled the next step in an NDP advertising campaign that will include a digital counter showing the loss in oil revenue due to Alberta’s lack of access to tidewater.
The province pegged it at $84 million per day.
“Ottawa needs to wake up,” Bilous said at a news conference, noting the digital ads will be placed near Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
The province has allocated about $31 million for the campaign dubbed Keep Canada Working.