Notley says WS is 'homophobic,' 'hateful'
Episode Stats
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147.88733
Summary
In this episode, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Jason Kenney responds to a question from a reporter from the Western Standard news site and the editor of the Edmonton Sun-Edmonton Sun about why the party won't take questions from the media.
Transcript
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I want to make it very clear that I'm happy to take any questions from the
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media and any follow-up questions. Thank you. Madam, good afternoon. I understand
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it's your birthday. Indeed it is. All right. Thank you for your saying that you
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would take questions and follow-up questions. I'm going to take that as your
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affirmation of openness and transparency when you're dealing with the media.
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So I do have to ask, the Western Standard news site and our Edmonton reporter, being
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fully accredited members of the press gallery, why has your party cut us off from
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receiving the NDP press releases and media advisories? Well, sir, I very much
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appreciate the question and I do appreciate you being here and thank you
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very much for the birthday greetings. However, as much as we have in the past
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taken questions from your bosses, your institution, unfortunately your
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publication recently has been engaging in very active, homophobic, discriminatory,
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hateful, uh, uh, editorial, uh, positioning, uh, as it relates to some of our caucus members.
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And, um, until such time as, uh, that is retracted and apology offered, uh, we will not be, uh,
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answering questions. I'm happy to reconsider that issue should a retraction and apology be offered.
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But, uh, between now and then I simply cannot engage in any sort of normalization of that
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kind of, uh, conversation. It is, uh, a breach of, of our human rights code. It's a breach of our
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charter. It's a breach of basic standards. And, and so, uh, I, I look forward to hearing from your
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editors in the future. Thank you. Happy to take other questions.
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Don't dispute your, uh, interpretation of our editorial policy. We're not homophobic. We're
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libertarian. But, um, with all due respect, it's, it's really not for politicians to say
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that we will talk to this people and not to those people because are we not all fighting the same
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election? And are we not all in good standing with both the national and the, and the provincial
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party? Your Saskatchewan wing of the NDP fields all our questions and sends us their
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advisories. Why won't you do the same? So I'm happy to take other questions from folks.
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