Dozens of people took to the streets on a cold day to protest recent remarks from Alberta, Canada’s premier about the “next bat soup thing out of Wuhan,” reports the Calgary Herald.
Jason Kenney made the remarks during a recent interview with the Calgary Sun.
“We believe that his comments were extremely racist and unfounded in any scientific theory, and not something a public figure should say,” said 12-grader Alice Yang to the Edmonton Journal. “This rally was made for the purpose of him to publicly apologize for his remarks.”
“For him to say this it makes me feel almost scared to say that I’m Chinese.” said protester Rona Kong to Global News.
Kenney made his controversial remarks in response to questions about his handling of the fourth wave of COVID, to which he acknowledged he did not respond fast enough.
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“Who knows what the next variant that gets thrown up is? I don’t know. And what’s the next bat soup thing out of Wuhan? I don’t know,” Kenney told the Sun.
He has since pulled back on those comments after initially defending them. Last week he told CTV News “it is obviously ridiculous to suggest that these widely reported scientific theories are ‘racist,’”
On Saturday, a new statement took a dramatic turn.
“I’m sorry if people felt offended by what I said, that was not my intention. And I certainly want to thank the Chinese Canadian community in Alberta for the tremendous care that it has shown in being responsible during COVID.”
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That last UNapology was certainly another racist comment, a back-handed micro-agression that is quite typical of white conservatives, who are so entitled they don’t even know what they’re saying half the time.