Area Tory's 'racist' remarks cloud apology

Poilievre says he regrets questioning merits of settlement with aboriginals

Juliet O'Neill, with files from Tim Shufelt

The Ottawa Citizen

Friday, June 13, 2008

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was on the defensive yesterday over the remarks of a Conservative MP who undermined his historic apology to aboriginal peoples by questioning "the value for all this money" survivors of residential schools are eligible to receive under a compensation settlement.

Pierre Poilievre, the Nepean-Carleton MP who serves as parliamentary secretary, expressed regret for his "hurtful and wrong" comments in the House of Commons just moments before question period. But his brief apology had little impact on Liberal MPs, who branded his remarks disgraceful and racist and demanded he step down as parliamentary secretary to the president of the treasury board.

Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine said in an interview the remarks were "just really unfortunate" distractions from Mr. Harper's apology, which was, in part, "about casting aside old attitudes and old stereotypes" like the ones Mr. Poilievre expressed. Chief Fontaine, who praised the apology during an appearance in the Senate with other aboriginal leaders, said the government apology remains "the important moment," despite the MP's remarks.

Mr. Poilievre also suggested aboriginals need to work harder rather than receive more money. He appeared unaware the $1.9-billion compensation settlement is the result of years of negotiations by government, churches and aboriginal representatives. The talks are aimed at reducing and containing a growing number of lawsuits over the mistreatment, including widespread physical and sexual assaults, of several generations of aboriginal children.

Liberal Tina Keeper, an aboriginal MP from northern Manitoba who was a star on the television show North of 60, branded Mr. Poilievre "a national embarrassment," and said she had received more calls from constituents about Mr. Poilievre's remarks than she had about the prime minister's request for forgiveness for the assimilation policies of the residential-school program.

"I'm dumbfounded," she said.

On a day Mr. Harper may have expected to bask in his widely praised apology, the prime minister wound up explaining that Mr. Poilievre had apologized for his comments, had contacted national aboriginal associations and was supportive of the government's historic apology -- "something that aboriginal people in this country have been waiting a very long time for."

In a radio interview just a few hours before Mr. Harper delivered his apology, Mr. Poilievre told a talk-show host there was too much power concentrated in the hands of the leadership on aboriginal reserves, "and it makes you wonder where all of this money is going." He exaggerated the cost of the compensation settlement, worth $1.9 billion, that provides $10,000 cash payments to former residential-school residents and extra funds for thousands who were physically or sexually abused.

"Now, along with this apology comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years," Mr. Poilievre said. "Now, you know, some of us are starting to ask: 'Are we really getting value for all of this money, and is more money really going to solve the problem?' My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self-reliance. That's the solution in the long run -- more money will not solve it."

Mr. Poilievre has encountered his share of controversy during his political career.

The most recent incident came last month when the MP said he wanted the federal government to step in and prevent Ontario from funding sex-reassignment surgery, a measure he called "the McGuinty sex-change program." Mr. Poilievre said taxpayers should not have to bear the cost of the procedure, and suggested that the provincial Liberals had their "priorities wrong."