![\"\"](\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/54437473_2060954117306453_1835685725438214144_n.jpg\")
Kiryakos said she’s been getting threats from someone who\nwants to release images of things she has said or commented on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSomeone outside of our party has been threatening to smear\nme, and I have had enough of the bullies and the threats,\u201d she said in the\nstatement. \u201cThis is who I am and I will keep speaking up \u2014 for myself and for\nAlbertans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one of the online exchanges, Kiryakos retweeted an\narticle about Germany’s alleged migrant rape crisis called \u201cRapefugees Not\nWelcome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said in her statement that everyone retweets and shares\narticles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI admit the image on the article isn’t positive,\u201d she said.\n\u201cBut the article was on women getting raped and the crisis there. When women\nare being assaulted, I care, no matter the faiths or the backgrounds of the\npeople.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another post, Kiryakos wrote about transgender washrooms\nin Alberta schools. \u201cI should have the right to choose for my children to not\nbe brainwashed into accepting perversions as ‘alternative lifestyles.\u201d’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her statement, she said she was concerned for her\ndaughter’s safety and voiced her honest opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt’s OK to disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UCP Leader Jason Kenney said he appreciates her decision to\nstep down and put the party first. He did not specifically comment on the\nsocial media posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI’ve always been clear that the United Conservative Party\nis a big-tent coalition that respects human dignity and will protect the rights\nof people regardless of how they pray or who they love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEva’s also from a minority community herself. She is from a\nMiddle Eastern refugee family, from a community that has faced a history of\ngenocide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kiryakos, a lawyer and mother of two, said she came to Canada as a child with her parents after they fled\npersecution for their Christian faith in Iraq. She said she was raised in\nSaskatchewan and taught to speak up and practise her right to freedom of\nspeech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, Calgary UCP candidate Caylan Ford stepped down\nafter publication of a private 2017 Facebook conversation in which she\nallegedly spoke about the replacement of white people in their homelands and\nthe collapse of western culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ford has degrees from three universities, including Oxford,\nand once worked as a policy adviser for what is now Global Affairs Canada under\nthe Harper government. She was considered a star candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, NDP Leader Rachel Notley said she was shocked\nby Ford’s comments. She said she doesn’t believe Kenney is a racist but that\nthe UCP has a problem with racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, she told reporters that the problem isn’t about\nthe UCP not properly vetting candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think this is about the leadership,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not in my mind, a good look for anybody who is\nseeking to represent Albertans in the legislature and to lead this province.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CALGARY \u2014 Another United Conservative Party candidate who has pulled out of the Alberta election says someone outside the party …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":206872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206874,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206867\/revisions\/206874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}