Month: April 2011

For the second day in a row, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff had to deal with a candidate problem. On Wednesday, he fired Andre Forbes, the Liberal candidate in the northern Quebec riding of Manicouagan, after the NDP revealed that Forbes had once referred to aboriginals as “Featherheads” and said they were lazy.

Today, the Conservative war room pushed around the transcript of a radio interview that Liberal candidate John Reilly did on March 31 with the Dave Rutherford Show. Reilly quit his job as an Alberta provincial court judge to run as the Liberal candidate in the riding of Wild Rose (Conservative Blake Richards is the incumbent). On the Rutherford show, the discussion turned to law-and-order issues:

Reilly: : I mean, this is one of my problems with the criminal justice system the way it is, is that I say we put too much emphasis on the offence and not enough emphasis on the offender.  If you’re looking at what the Conservative government wants to do is say if this is the offence, you go to jail. And that's going to put people in jail that don't need to be there.

Host:  But what kind of offences though?

John Reilly:  Sexual assault.

Host:  You shouldn’t go to jail for a sex assault?

John Reilly:  Well, you know, there are sexual assaults and there are sexual assaults.

Ignatieff said he would not fire Reilly as his Wildrose candidate and noted that Reilly issued a statement in which he “unreservedly apologize[d]” for “the clumsy example” he used to talk about problems with the justice system. Ignatieff told reporters: “He has served the community with a long record of distinguished public service. He made one remark that he's going to regret for the rest of his life. He's offered an unreserved apology. I've accepted it.”

Reilly has had his sentences overturned at least three times by the Alberta Court of Appeal and was criticized by the high court in at least two.

• Earlier this year in February, the Alberta Court of Appeal criticized Reilly when it unanimously overturned his decision to give a conditional sentence to a drug offender. Joseph Dow was caught with what police said was “a potpourri of drugs” and later pleaded guilty to three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and one count of possession of the proceeds of crime. But Reilly did not send him to jail, letting him serve his sentence in the community rather than prison. “I've made comments before about how ineffective I feel imprisonment is,” Reilly said from the bench in passing sentencing. But the Alberta Court of Appeal gave Dow a 30-month prison term and, in the unanimous ruling accompanying that decision, Justice Patricia Rowbotham wrote: “It was not open to the sentencing judge to disregard guidance of this court, to disregard sentencing provisions of the Criminal Code and to set his own idiosyncratic policy. The sentence is demonstrably unfit.”
• Last fall, the Alberta Court of Appeal quadrupled a 90-day sentence Reilly had given to a man who sexually molested a 14-year-old developmentally delayed woman while the two were travelling on a bus. The appeal court put the man in jail for 12 months and the appeal judges wrote: “We find it particularly troubling that the trial judge stated effectively that a 90-day sentence served intermittently had the same deterrent effect as a 12-to 15-month jail sentence. This is clearly wrong. This court has pointed out and reiterates that in child sexual abuse cases, denunciation and deterrence are not secondary considerations in favour of rehabilitation or individualized solutions.”
• In March, 2010, the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned a conditional sentence that Reilly gave a former guidance counsellor who had plead guilty to two counts of sexual assault and one count of gross decency in a case in which three junior high school girls were molested. Reilly gave the offender a two-year sentence to be served in the community. The Alberta Court of Appeal overturned that and sent the man to jail for three years.

But in one case, the Alberta Court of Appeals said Reilly's sentence was too harsh. In June, 2009, Reilly sentenced a  “spiritual healer” who molested a client's two teenage daughters to five-and-a-half years in prison. The appeals court thought that was too harsh and gave the man four-and-a-half years in jail.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff this morning said he ordered an immediate investigation after he learned of comments attributed to Andre Forbes, the Liberal candidate in the northern Quebec riding of Manicouagan. Ignatieff said that, if he learns that what Forbes said is true, he will not be a Liberal candidate.

UPDATEDSee below: Ignatieff has, in fact, fired Forbes.

Here's what the NDP war room put out today after digging up some old quotes attributed to Forbes:

IN HIS OWN WORDS: Liberal Candidate André Forbes

André Forbes is the Liberal candidate in Manicouagan. He is also the founder and former spokesperson for l’Association des Droits des Blancs (the Association for the Rights of Whites) in Sept-Iles, Quebec and is spokesperson for Métis Côte-Nord. Does Michael Ignatieff think André Forbes is an acceptable candidate? Some of the comments:

On the work ethic of Innu :

“We all know that the aboriginals will not keep their job… I have worked for many years for Gulf Paper of Clarke City, which closed in 1968. Many Montagnais worked there. I only remember one who did a good job. There must have been other hard-working amongst them but I don’t recall one name”, said the person who is circulating a petition to corner stores of the area denouncing “secret negotiations between the governments and the Innu.” (Le Soleil, March 2, 2002)

On his opposition to land negotiations :

Yesterday, Mr. Forbes said that governments recognized Aboriginal rights over those of white people. “This is heinous politics which brings social tensions, which leads to what is happening in Israel.” (Le Soleil, May 2, 2002)

On the “high cost” of respecting First Nations :

“Do you know how much a featherhead costs?” That’s the brutal question I was asked by André Forbes, president of the Association for the Rights of Whites of Sept-Îles, in September of 2002, at the height of the controversy surrounding the agreement in principle with the Innu community. Forbes was referring to how much it costs for the State to fulfill its responsibilities towards aboriginals. Of course, he had the answer. “For you, it’s 25 grand; for a prisoner, 50 grand; for an Indian; 100 grand.”(L’actualite, October 15, 2004)

On the threat posed to “white rights”:

“In Sept-Iles, André Forbes warns the newly-recognized Innu rights will one day trump his own. He represents an association he says is for the protection of white rights.”The Innu are telling us now we're the cowboys and you're the Indians,” (The National, November 8, 2010)

Forbes is now an active member of Métis Côte-Nord, an organization that recently denounced “special treatment” for Muslims, gays and lesbians. In a letter concerning hydro development in Northern Québéc, for which Forbes is the contact, the Métis Côte-Nord wrote:

”If our Métis Community was made of Muslims, homosexuals or of an association of old ladies making moccasins out of caribou skin, would Hydro-Québéc consult with us? Yes.” (Letter, January 5, 2009)

Last week, Liberals denounced a Bloc Québécois candidate for lack of respect to Aboriginal citizens. Does Michael Ignatieff think André Forbes is an acceptable candidate?

Just before 3 p.m. this afternoon, the Liberals issued the following release:

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff made the following statement today:
“As soon as I was apprised of past comments made by the Liberal candidate in Manicouagan, André Forbes, I immediately asked my staff to inquire about their validity. As a result, Mr. Forbes has been informed that he is no longer a candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada. Mr. Forbes’ comments have no place within the Liberal Party of Canada.
“The Liberal Party of Canada has always stood for equality among all citizens, including First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and non-Aboriginal Canadians. We categorically condemn any comments that seek to divide Canadians on the basis of their culture or ethnicity.