What did Jason Kenney say? Alberta premier’s racist comment sparks backlash online
Alberta premier Jason Kenney recently came under fire after making alleged racist comments against the Chinese community during a year-end interview with Postmedia‘s Rick Bell.
During the interview, the Canadian politician addressed concerns related to the new variants of COVID-19 and talked about China’s Wuhan province, where the virus was first detected:
“Who knows what the next variant that gets thrown up is? I don’t know. And what’s the next bat soup thing out of Wuhan? I don’t know. I’ve learned from bitter experience not to make predictions about this.”
The remarks were immediately condemned on social media, with other political leaders like Rachel Notley and Mary Ng demanding an apology from the premier.
Twitter calls out Jason Kenney for alleged anti-Asian remarks
Jason Kenney is a Canadian politician and the leader of the Union Conservative Party. He was named the 18th premier of Alberta and has continued to serve in the position since 2019.
However, the politician recently left several people disappointed with his racially-inappropriate comments against the Chinese community in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several social media users took to Twitter to call out the premiere for his controversial statements:
You have failed the people of Alberta. You’ve consistently made wrong decisions in this health crisis, and racist comments like these are a reminder of why you are unfit to lead Alberta @jkenney. https://t.co/TZJ8krjSFx
This is an unbelievably racist statement. Throughout this pandemic, Jason Kenney and the UCP have used dog whistle language. Now they are being openly racist. #ableg #yeg #abracism https://t.co/5DqqaO4hiB
All I want for Christmas is for the premier of my province to maybe refrain from trading in dog whistle, anti-Asian sentiment. https://t.co/oWXFPhlKfa
In response to the backlash, Jason Kenny’s acting press secretary addressed the situation in a statement to CTV News Calgary:
“It is obviously ridiculous to suggest that these widely-reported scientific theories are racist. The Premier’s comment obviously referred to the widely-reported theory that the first human infection of COVID-19 resulted from transmission between an infected bat and a human in the Wuhan region of China.”
He refuted claims of Kenny’s statement being racially offensive in nature and said that the premier aimed to mention that no prediction can be made about the future catalyst of the pandemic:
“The World Health Organization has concluded that direct spread from bats to humans in Wuhan is a ‘likely’ scenario to explain the beginning of human transmission. The Premier’s comment underscored that there is no way to predict what the catalyst of a future pandemic will be, or how future variants might evolve.”
Fleming also shared that Kenney hosted two dinners at Chinese restaurants in Edmonton and Calgary earlier this year to “show solidarity with the Chinese community” and to “condemn racist sentiments directed at the Chinese community with respect to COVID-19.”
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Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if the premiere will directly acknowledge the situation and respond to the criticism in the days to come.
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