Alberta Premier Jason Kenney condemned a controversial award-winning essay criticized as sexist and racist during his province-wide radio show, but also appeared to downplay the controversy it sparked. The issue was first raised by host Wayne Nelson during Saturday’s CHQR and CHED show, and Kenney responded that there was “obviously a breakdown” in how the judges evaluated the essays, adding that they “screwed up ». Nelson had noted at the start of the program that while the summer is often slow for news, the past few weeks have bucked that trend. Kenney, speaking about the essay controversy moments later, said the uproar could be evidence that “it hasn’t been a big news week.” The essay urged women to give up careers and focus on having children so the province would not have to bring in more foreigners, and it placed third in a government competition. It was later pulled, along with the other two winners, from the government’s website after criticism surfaced on social media on Monday. “Obviously the essay was offensive, but maybe that’s proof that it wasn’t a big news week, Wayne, that in Twitter-driven Alberta politics, we were talking about third place (in) an essay contest that nobody’s ever heard of ,” Kenney said when Nelson referred to the controversy as a “storm.” Kenney said he expects to hear a report on how the essays will be evaluated. The contest was conducted through the office of the Legislative Assembly, headed by Speaker Nathan Cooper. The competition’s judges, Jackie Armstrong-Khomeniuk, UCO Under-Secretary-General for the Status of Women, and Jackie Lawley, the department’s parliamentary secretary, issued statements. Armstrong-Homeniuk said the essay should never have been selected. Lovely apologized for her role in the competition. Cooper’s office, in a statement on Tuesday, said the pageant was designed and managed by Armstrong-Khomeniuk in her role as regional chair of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentary Group. He added that neither the President nor the legislative assembly office was involved in the selection of the essays “in any capacity.” There were calls for Armstrong-Homeniuk and Lovely to resign, and Nelson asked Kenney if they should resign. “Apparently there is a group called the Commonwealth Women’s Parliamentary Association. The first time I heard it was last week,” Kenney replied. “This is not the government. People in the legislature have different associations and do different projects. This is one they fought. They admitted it, apologized and committed to making sure it doesn’t happen again,” Kenney said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 13, 2022.
