Medicine Hat News

Alberta government members should resign over prize for sexist, racist essay: NDP

- DEAN BENNETT

Alberta’s Opposition is calling for the two top legislatur­e leaders on women’s issues to quit for giving a prize for an essay that urges women to forgo careers and focus on baby-making so the province doesn’t have to bring in more foreigners.

NDP critic Rakhi Pancholi said Jackie Armstrong Homeniuk, the United Conservati­ve Party government’s associate minister for the Status of Women, and Jackie Lovely, the department’s parliament­ary secretary, have lost all credibilit­y to advance the cause of women and must resign.

“I don’t know how (they) can continue in these roles,” Pancholi said at a news conference in Fort Saskatchew­an, Alta., on Thursday.

“I don’t know what work they were doing. They won’t even stand up before cameras and take questions.

“They have no credibilit­y, they are underminin­g — actively underminin­g — women’s interests in this province.”

Armstrong-Homeniuk is the member of the legislatur­e for Fort Saskatchew­an Veg rev il le.

Public pressure had been growing on Armstrongs office to divulge the names of the judges.

Some United Conservati­ve female legislatur­e members had begun issuing statements stating they were not on the panel.

Late Wednesday night, Lovely, the member for Camrose, issued a statement saying, “I can confirm that I was the only other MLA on the essay judging panel.”

“I regret that this essay was chosen, and I apologize for my role in that,” her statement 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 (English as a second language) 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.”

The essays were pulled from the legislativ­e assembly website shortly after criticism of the contest emerged on social media Monday night.

Armstrong-Homeniuk has since declined interviews, but instead issued two statements saying she doesn’t support the sentiments in the essay.

“It’s clear that the process failed, and I apologize for my role in that ,” Armstrong wrote Tuesday. “The selection of this particular essay and awarding it with third prize was a failure on my part as the head of the judging panel.”

Pancholi said that prompts the question -- if the two judges say the essay should not have won, why did they pick it?

“We still do not have a clear explanatio­n as to what and why this happened,” Pancholi said.

The essay was part of the legislativ­e contest, titled “Her Vision Inspires,” which asked young women to explore ways to make Alberta a better place.

The top two essays suggest ways to get more women, and the public in general, involved in public life.

The third-place winner — identified only as S. Silver — won a $200 prize to be spent at the legislatur­e gift shop.

Silver’s essay posits that the governing mission of humanity is to reproduce itself, but that Alberta has lost its way to instead pursue “selfish and hedonistic goals.”

The solution, she argues, is to acknowledg­e that “women are not exactly equal to men.”

Society, she writes, should celebrate and embrace the birthing role of women and stop pushing them to put off prime procreatio­n years while they “break into careers that men traditiona­lly dominate.”

She says the idea that Alberta can put off procreatio­n and instead “import foreigners to replace ourselves, is a sickly mentality that amounts to a drive for cultural suicide.”

Pancholi and other critics have likened that reference to 1930s Nazi Germany, when women were urged to be baby vessels to propagate the Aryan race.

Three female candidates in the United Conservati­ve race to replace Premier Jason Kenney as party leader and premier have also taken to Twitter to criticize the award.

 ?? ?? Rakhi Pancholi
Rakhi Pancholi

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