PC MLA apologizes for agreeing with post using disabilities slur

A PC MLA has apologized for agreeing with a Facebook post which used a disabilities slur to describe NDP voters.

The post circulated on social media Sunday night and is actually back from March 14th, when Calgary-Greenway’s Prab Gill posted a news article regarding the NDP’s approval numbers after Deputy Minister Sarah Hoffman made her infamous ‘sewer rat’ comment in the legislature.

One Facebook user wrote: “They’ve have left every province they’ve run bankrupt & broken but yet ret***s still vote them in!!”

Below Prab wrote: “Yes, agree Rick.”

Prab Gill

The NDP sent out a release demanding an apology and on Monday afternoon Gill did.

Calgary North West NDP MLA Sandra Jansen said it’s discouraging.

“We’re responsible for our social media and what goes out and the comments that are made on our social media pages,” she said. “From what I’ve read over the past 12 hours, there were a lot of folks who were very upset with the comment.”

“If these are the sorts of things that concern you, you wouldn’t do that in the first place, you would see that word and you would feel repulsed by it the minute you saw it.”

The incident is yet another reminder for politicians to be careful about social media.

Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt was suspended for a similar incident last year, when a Facebook user called Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne “Mr. Wynne or whatever she identifies as” and the shadow minister of finance wrote below that he was proud to have constituents like him.

Like Gill, Fildebrandt apologized for not reading the comment fully and said “If anyone felt that I shared those sentiments, I do not, and I apologize.”

Ironically, the comment Gill apologized for came on the heels of Hoffman making her own gaffe when it came to words.

During a heated exchange in question period with the Wildrose in March, Hoffman said “We’re focused on hard hats. They’re (Wildrose) spending a lot of time with sewer rats.”

“I spent many years in public education, I encouraged students to use their words with caution and choose them wisely, and I failed to do so,” she later said. “There’s no excuse.”

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today