Kenney’s racist speechwriter has a long record of publishing racist, sexist, Islamophobic, and homophobic articles

Kenney refused to fire Bunner yesterday after a profoundly racist 2013 article came to light, in which Bunner claimed indigenous people lied about their experiences in residential school to create a “bogus ‘genocide’ story” for financial gain. (File photo: Jason Kenney/Facebook)

EDMONTON – Premier Jason Kenney’s speechwriter, Paul Bunner, has written and published hateful articles attacking indigenous people, LGBTQ2S+ people, Muslims, and women, for decades.

Kenney refused to fire Bunner yesterday after a profoundly racist 2013 article came to light, in which Bunner claimed indigenous people lied about their experiences in residential school to create a “bogus ‘genocide’ story” for financial gain.

Marlene Poitras, Alberta regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, is calling on Kenney to fire Bunner.

Bunner’s record of published prejudice extends from the late 1990s up to 2016.

“It’s simply not believable that Kenney hired Bunner to such a senior position as a writer without any knowledge of his body of work as a writer,” said Rakhi Pancholi, MLA for Edmonton-Whitemud. “And even if he wants to claim that, Kenney can’t deny that he knows about Bunner’s long record of racism, sexism, Islamophobia and homophobia today.  He must fire him immediately.”

• In August of 1997, Bunner wrote “government seems bent on delivering wards of the state to homosexual households” and “AIDS gets more ink than it deserves.”
• In September of 1997, Bunner wrote about First Nations reserves: “A community of people who are willing to give up their personal freedom to an oppressive, collectivist regime is a pretty sorry excuse for a culture.”
• In November of 1997, Bunner wrote an article about several Canadian court cases that he saw a setbacks in the “culture war,” and argued that “homosexuality is individually and socially destructive.”
• In August of 1998, Bunner wrote a piece speculating about whether “gays can be cured.”
• In October of 1999, Bunner wrote a piece called “Southamettes and Indians” in which he simultaneously smears three female journalists, two Alberta judges and a First Nations chief.

“Ladies, ladies, please. LADIES! There, thank you. Now, what’s all this keening and wailing about the Stoney Indian reserve? Calm down, Catherine. Linda, don’t let your tongue get ahead of your brain. And Susan, please stop crying. Yes, yes, Judge Reilly is a handsome guy, and a good liberal too. What is he saying about the Stoney ruling class? They’re corrupt despots? Who keep their subjects ignorant, sickly and poor in order to control them? My, that is harsh. Is he right? Well, why don’t you say so? Mmm. That’s true. If you buy his argument, it puts you uncomfortably close to those right-wing lunatics who argue that political tyranny is an inevitable by-product of segregated and communistic aboriginal self-government.”

• In October of 1998, Bunner suggests that survivors of child abuse are reporting fabricated stories planted by feminists to destroy men.

“The hysteria surrounding child sexual abuse was swamping reason. And feminist ideologues were flooding into the counselling field, their barren hearts bent on overthrowing the patriarchy, whatever the cost. How many dozens, or hundreds, of men have been investigated, charged and convicted of sexual abuse during the last decade on the basis of recovered memories?”

• In September 1998, Bunner criticized Eaton’s department store for not adhering to his views on gender roles. See attachment.

“Eaton’s dressed men for the Canadian dream; a conservative suit for the managerial and professional class, durable work clothes for the working class, and unpretentious leisure wear for the golf course or cottage. It dressed women modesty for mothering and elegantly for social occasions. The sexes had their place, and Eaton’s understood them. Post-makeover, the new Eaton’s men are either light-in-their loafers aesthetes, pathetic cuckolds or stay-at-home choirboys. The women are executive ice queens or wanton nymphs, universally young, sexy, skinny, tough and liberated from the stifling roles of mother and wife. There is no doubt who’s on top in the new Eaton’s culture: estrogen rules.”

• In January of 1998, Bunner commented on the landmark Calder case, which established indigenous title as a legal precedent, which led to the Nisga’a Treaty.

“But these are minor outbreaks of ethnofugalistic madness compared to the federal government’s blind rush toward aboriginal self-government, its commitment to spend up to $500 million implementing the guilt-ridden recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and, worst of all, the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision that an Indian band in British Columbia is legally entitled–on the basis of rumours, legends and myths transmitted through several generations–to co-ownership of a chunk of crown land the size of Nova Scotia.”

• In February of 2015, Bunner bemoans that “Canada still has no legal restrictions on abortion. The gay rights lobby is still bullying politicians to do their bidding.”
• Later that year, in November of 2015, Bunner refers to “the perverted sword of Islam” and writes that following the Paris terrorist attacks, “and amid evidence that the perpetrators were either home-grown Islamists or part of the great refugee tsunami, inevitably there are questions about how many barbarians are inside the gates.”
• In February of 2016, Bunner describes Wab Kinew, now leader of Manitoba Official Opposition, as one of a group of “modern-day aboriginal nomads who migrate from conference to conference just as their ancestors pursued the buffalo.”