Harper's "racist" mistake

Proving my point about the media trying to portray the Conservatives as bigoted, my local paper didn't feature a word about Jean Chretien's alleged joke about natives and alcohol - but this, of course, merits a prominent story on the "National" page:

Christopher Columbus mistook aboriginals for East Indians but Conservative leadership hopeful Stephen Harper should know better, says a furious native leader.

Harper's office drafted a letter of apology Thursday to the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres after wishing its members a happy India Republic Day.

"This is 2004, Mr. Harper, not 1492 - the last time a man got lost looking for India," wrote federation president Rick Lobzun in a letter dated Wednesday.

"Look what has happened to the aboriginal population . . . since then."
[...]
Although the federation took almost a month to respond, Lobzun wrote to express his "shock and outrage."

"It is shameful, Mr. Harper, that you as a potential leader in this country choose such off-hand forms of communication which make you guilty of possessing a poor briefing staff at best and racist approaches to policy at worst."

Harper's spokeswoman, Carolyn Stewart Olsen, blamed an administrative glitch.

"It's not a big story here, it's just a simple clerical error. It's unfortunate and we are apologizing. We just heard of this yesterday."

This is a stupid mistake. There's no doubt about that. But considering how many times I've been told "Indian" is not an appropriate name for Canada's aboriginal population, I think Harper's staff can be forgiven for assuming the "Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres" was an Indo-Canadian, not native group.

If any other party did this, it would be a silly, amusing gaffe. For the Conservatives, of course, it's evil anti-Canadian racism.

The latest gaffe highlights an old pattern, said New Democrat MP Pat Martin, critic for aboriginal issues.

"What a bunch of buffoons," he said. "This type of Freudian slip is just an indication of the esteem in which they hold aboriginal people."

Update: this was the top - top - story on CTV News last night. Give me a f**king break.

Posted by damian at February 27, 2004 07:23 AM