Moderator on Smith’s Alberta Next panel sorry for saying teen should be spanked

Bruce McAllister, a senior staff member in Alberta premier Danielle' Smith's office, is under fire after a controversial social media post he made criticizing immigration levels in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - YouTube, Alberta Government (Mandatory Credit)

EDMONTON — The executive director of Premier Danielle Smith’s office says he’s sorry for publicly calling for a high school student to be spanked.

Bruce McAllister’s social media apology Tuesday came as Smith called the comment offside, and the teen likened it to being bullied.

The Opposition NDP, meanwhile, said it’s yet another example of unprofessional conduct by McAllister and one deserving of dismissal.

The controversy arose Monday night when McAllister, in his role as moderator for Smith’s touring Alberta Next town hall panel, sparked an uproar in Calgary for dismissing 17-year-old Evan Li, who had stepped up to a microphone to discuss a looming provincewide teachers’ strike.

It wasn’t on the approved list of topics for discussion, and McAllister cut off Li’s microphone. When the teen could still be heard trying to ask his question, McAllister interrupted.

“I applaud you coming here to speak. I don’t applaud how you’re trying to speak,” McAllister said. “It’s not making any sense.

“I know you’d love some chaos, but your parents should turn you over your knee.”

The line was met with some boos from the crowd, and a woman behind the teen in line yelled that it was a “rude” thing for McAllister to say.

“That is disgraceful,” added the woman.

“You’re dismissing a teenager!” yelled another in the crowd.

On Tuesday morning, McAllister wrote a three-line apology on social media without referencing who or what it was about.

“Last night, while moderating the AB Next panel, I made an inappropriate remark to a participant,” McAllister wrote. “I regret saying it and I apologize.

“I’m committed to ensuring these conversations remain respectful and constructive.”

McAllister didn’t respond to a request for an interview.

Li said he wants a more personal and public apology from McAllister rather than just an online post.

“It’s just really deplorable and disappointing, and honestly embarrassing,” the Grade 12 student said in an interview.

Li said the only other time he has been spoken to like that was when elementary school bullies picked on him.

“It’s embarrassing for Alberta to be viewed in this way,” he said. “We are a robust democracy where every voice should be given an equal chance to be heard.”

Li said he was trying to ask Smith’s panel about the possible teachers’ strike and why her United Conservative Party government funds public schools to the degree that it does.

“It wasn’t even ... accusatory or anything like that. I just thought, ‘What is the reason behind this?’” he said.

Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said while this wasn’t the first example of unprofessional behaviour from McAllister, this one went too far.

“This is disgusting behaviour and a tweeted apology is not enough,” Nenshi said in a statement.

“This is not a one-off — all summer he’s been silencing, belittling and insulting Albertans he disagrees with.”

Smith, at an unrelated news conference in Calgary, rejected Nenshi’s call for dismissal, saying McAllister’s social media apology should suffice.

“None of us are perfect and it’s a very stressful environment ... to be moderating events like that,” Smith said. “I always take the view that you have to engage with people respectfully. That’s my expectation of my staff, and I’ve asked him to do better next time.”

McAllister is a former broadcaster and legislature member for the Wildrose Party.

The Alberta Next town halls have been held to gauge public opinion about the federal government and whether the province should carve its own path in areas like pensions, policing and immigration.

As moderator, McAllister was tasked with keeping order and moving the debate forward. However, at times, he has taken a less impartial approach.

At an Edmonton town hall, he publicly disparaged an attendee who took issue with the panel’s pre-made video for its discussion around immigration.

The attendee said he found the panel’s decision to blame immigrants for high housing costs and overcrowded classrooms “disgusting.”

McAllister shot back. “Get lost. Nobody did that,” he said.

When the crowd member doubled down and repeated that he thought it was disgusting, McAllister interrupted and said, “I think you are.”

At the same event, McAllister compared those who asked off-topic questions to toddlers.

“Just knock it off or I’ll ask somebody to get you out of here,” he told another attendee. “Jeez, like, you don’t reward a toddler in the grocery store and give them what they want.”

Cutting off microphones also wasn’t an unusual practice for McAllister, who told crowds before each town hall that they had 45 seconds to speak.

But the time frame didn’t always apply to those making supportive comments, such as for a man in Grande Prairie earlier this month who began his question by telling the premier she had “bigger balls than most men.”

“You can keep going, sir,” McAllister told the man after it was acknowledged he was nearly out of time.

Monday’s town hall was the panel’s last in-person event. An online town hall is scheduled for Wednesday.

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press.

In a Sept. 30 story about the moderator of the Alberta Next panel apologizing for saying a teen speaker should be spanked, The Canadian Press referred to the province’s charter schools as private. In fact, they are public schools.