(Winnipeg) Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre defended his decision Friday to speak to a think tank that has come under fire for comments about residential schools and discrimination.
“We talk to groups all the time that we don’t agree with,” Poilievre said in an interview after his speech at the Frontier Center for Public Policy in Winnipeg.
In 2018, the center ran radio ads, which were quickly pulled, saying it was a myth that residential schools were robbing Indigenous children of their childhood.
Last summer, the center posted a comment on its website that the stories of school children being murdered and secretly buried are highly suspect, if not completely untrue. And last month, the center published an article claiming that policies against white men represent the only systemic discrimination that exists.
Federal Minister Dan Vandal, who represents a riding in Winnipeg, accused Mr. Poilievre of promoting ideas and organizations that do not represent Winnipeg or Manitoba.
Liberal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller also criticized the Conservative leader.
“In 2008, Mr. Poilievre rightly apologized for saying that residential school survivors, many of whom were very old, should learn the value of hard work. Today’s scandal calls those excuses into question,” read a post on Mr Miller’s Twitter account.
Pierre Poilievre said his feelings were clear.
I obviously support reconciliation and I believe that residential schools are a hideous and horrible scourge in the history of our country.
Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
Mr. Poilievre also hit back at his opponents, saying Liberal and New Democrat politicians have spoken at the center before.
His staff provided examples, including former federal finance minister Paul Martin, who interviewed the center 21 years ago, and former governor general and Manitoba NDP premier Ed Schreyer, at a center lunch in 2013, 29 years after he last held public office.
Poilievre also compared the situation to New Democratic Party (NDP) Leader Jagmeet Singh’s support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government, after Trudeau admitted to using “blackface” and “brownface” in costumes during his youth.
Center officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Poilievre’s speech was part of a day-long visit to Manitoba’s capital, where a by-election is expected to soon fill the Winnipeg South Center riding seat that was held by late Liberal MP Jim Carr. in December.
The seat has a long Liberal tradition, although the Conservatives won it for one term in 2011.
Mr Poilievre said he would campaign in the constituency and said he was optimistic.
“I think the people of Manitoba have suffered enough under Mr. Trudeau and they want a change. »