Kenney criticized for cancel culture remarks amid renewed residential school debate
EDMONTON — A western Canadian Indigenous leader is condemning cancel culture remarks made by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, and says it reinforces a recent decision to scrap a formal working agreement with the province.
Kenney spoke Tuesday about cancel culture when asked about Calgary Board of Education trustees voting this week to immediately rename the Langevin junior high school in light of outrage following the discovery of the remains believed to be from 215 children at the site of a former Indian residential school in Kamloops.
Hector-Louis Langevin, a former federal Conservative cabinet minister, is considered an architect of the residential school system, which saw thousands of Indigenous children taken from their families over decades, isolated and abused in a program designed to assimilate them into non-Indigenous culture.
Kenney was asked by reporters about the Langevin issue and the ongoing national debate over retaining or removing statues of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, who was the driving force behind the residential school system.