Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre denounces 'white replacement theory'
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre denounces 'white replacement theory'
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre denounces 'white replacement theory'
OTTAWA -
Pierre Poilievre, a high-profile contender in the Conservative party's leadership race, on Monday denounced the "white replacement theory," which was believed to be a motive for a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., as "ugly and disgusting hate-mongering."
In a statement provided to The Canadian Press, the longtime Ottawa MP, who has been attracting massive crowds as he campaigns across the country, condemned the attack, in which police say a white gunman shot up a supermarket in a majority Black neighbourhood, killing 10 people and wounding three others.
U.S. law enforcement is investigating the shooter's online posts, which include the conspiracy theory that there's a plot to diminish the influence of white people.
Believers say so-called "white replacement" is being achieved both through immigration and demographics, with white people having lower birth rates than other populations, and some claim this has been orchestrated by Jews.
Poilievre was responding to a tweet by fellow leadership contestant Patrick Brown pointing out that Pat King, a leader of the February "Freedom Convoy"that clogged up the streets surrounding Parliament Hill for weeks, which Poilievre and many other Conservative MPs supported, has spread the conspiracy theory online.
Brown called on his rival to "condemn this hate."
"For Patrick Brown to use this atrocity is sleazy -- even for him,"Poilievre said in his statement Monday. "I supported the peaceful and law-abiding truckers who protested for their livelihoods and freedoms while simultaneously condemning any individuals who broke laws, behaved badly or blocked critical infrastructure.
"I also condemn Pat King and his ugly remarks."
In response to Poilievre's remarks, a spokesman for Brown accused him of "reluctantly giving a statement when asked, rather than shouting denunciation from every platform you have."
"Flirting with these dangerous elements does a disservice to the vast majority of Conservative Party members and will cost us the next election if it is allowed to stand,"' Chisholm Pothier wrote.
Interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen also issued a statement Monday calling racism repugnant.
"The `white-replacement' conspiracy theory is peddled by racists and bigots, Conservatives unequivocally condemn this kind of thinking," she said.
Bergen went on to say that "while Canadians are free to protest and demonstrate, that does not include illegally blocking or occupying infrastructure, nor does it include illegal hate-speech."
How much support each of the six Conservative leadership candidates running for Erin O'Toole's former job showed to the protesters who descended on the nation's capital as part of the convoy has been a reoccurring feature of the race.
Poilievre discussed his position on the demonstration -- which was characterized by local police and political leaders as an occupation -- during an hour-and-a-half interview with controversial Canadian psychology professor and bestselling author Jordan Peterson, which aired Monday.
In the interview, which was conducted virtually, Poilievre defended the protest near Parliament Hill as a mostly peaceful endeavour, saying he believed truckers who travelled there would have left had Trudeau acquiesced and removed the federal mandates.
"The media depiction was total nonsense. If you watched it on television you would think that it was Armageddon," Poilievre told Peterson, pointing out MPs who condemned the protest were not blocked from accessing the House of Commons.
"It was peaceful. It was most of the time sort of a jubilant-type celebration."
Poilievre did, however, acknowledge the pain it caused to some businesses. Some in the area decided to close during the convoy for reasons that included protesters flouting public health rules and reports of staff being harassed.
"Some businesses were inconvenienced and lost money. They should be compensated."
Poilievre suggested he's also looking at proposing changes to the federal Emergencies Act, telling Peterson he was consulting with legal scholars around curtailing its use, which Conservatives contend was unnecessary to dismantle the Ottawa protest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2022.
Now that the House and Senate have adjourned for the summer, CTVNews.ca breaks down what key pieces of legislation passed in the final days of the spring session, and what key government bills will be left to deal with in the fall.
What does Bill C-21 propose to do? From a handgun 'freeze' to 'red' and 'yellow' flag laws, CTVNews.ca explores the federal government's proposed firearm legislation.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh's recent encounter with protesters at an Ontario election campaign stop, where he was verbally harassed, is casting a renewed spotlight on politicians' security, with Singh telling CTV News that he's witnessing a level of anger he hasn't seen before.
Six candidates are on the ballot to become the Conservative Party's next leader. In holding rallies, doing media interviews, and participating in debates, each contender has been releasing details of their policy platforms. Here's a snapshot of where the candidates stand on the economy, housing, climate, defence and social issues.
The federal Liberals and New Democrats have finalized an agreement that, if maintained, would keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government in power until June 2025, in exchange for progress on longstanding NDP priorities. Trudeau announced Tuesday morning that the confidence-and-supply agreement has been brokered, and is effective immediately.
'After a weeks-long survey of just about everyone I've met ... the overall judgment on Justin Trudeau is one of being a political write-off,' writes Don Martin in an opinion column for CTVNews.ca. 'He’s too woke, too precious, preachy in tone, exceedingly smug, lacking in leadership, fading in celebrity, slow to act, short-sighted in vision and generally getting more irritating with every breathlessly whispered public pronouncement,' Martin writes.
It's time for the whiners to win and the government to reopen the skies, a return to those glory times of flying when the biggest complaints were expensive parking, a middle seat and stale pretzels, commentator Don Martin writes in an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.
In an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca, Don Martin says Doug Ford coasted to majority re-election victory in Ontario by sticking to the middle of the road: 'Not too progressive. Not too conservative.'
There's a lesson for Canada's political leaders in the short life and quick death of Jason Kenney as premier of Alberta, writes Don Martin in an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.
It's becoming a make-or-break week for two Conservative premiers as their futures pivot on a pair of defining moments, writes Don Martin in an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.
Witnesses recount what they saw after police officers engaged in a shooting with armed suspects at a bank in Saanich, B.C., on Tuesday morning. Two suspects are dead and six officers are in hospital with gunshot wounds.
After five years in the role, John Horgan announced on Tuesday afternoon he plans to step down as premier of British Columbia and has asked his governing party, the NDP, to hold a leadership convention later this year.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Tuesday of becoming 'a terrorist' state carrying out 'daily terrorist acts' and urged Russia's expulsion from the United Nations.
Donald Trump rebuffed his own security's warnings about armed protesters in the Jan. 6 rally crowd and made desperate attempts to join his supporters as they marched to the Capitol, according to dramatic new testimony Tuesday before the House committee investigating the 2021 insurrection.
A scathing letter from an RCMP communications manager released Tuesday says RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki referred to direct pressure from the federal public safety minister to release firearm details in the days after the Nova Scotia mass shooting.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for helping the financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
The federal Liberal government has agreed to provide sensitive cabinet documents to the inquiry examining its use of the Emergencies Act during the "Freedom Convoy" protest.
After five years in the role, John Horgan announced on Tuesday afternoon he plans to step down as premier of British Columbia and has asked his governing party, the NDP, to hold a leadership convention later this year.
A jury at a coroner's inquest into the deaths of three women murdered by their former partner is recommending that Ontario formally declare intimate partner violence an epidemic and establish an independent commission dedicated to eradicating it.
Witnesses recount what they saw after police officers engaged in a shooting with armed suspects at a bank in Saanich, B.C., on Tuesday morning. Two suspects are dead and six officers are in hospital with gunshot wounds.
An Ontario community is reeling after a 23-month-old boy died when he was accidentally left in a hot car outside the school where his mother taught, the mayor says.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Tuesday of becoming 'a terrorist' state carrying out 'daily terrorist acts' and urged Russia's expulsion from the United Nations.
The chief elected official in the Missouri county where an Amtrak train slammed into a dump truck said Tuesday that residents and county leaders have been pushing for a safety upgrade at the railroad crossing for nearly three years. Meanwhile, the toll from the accident rose to four deaths and 150 injuries.
The first 10 years of Syria's conflict, which started in 2011, killed more than 300,000 civilians, the United Nations said Tuesday -- the highest official estimate to date of conflict-related civilian deaths in the country.
France's president denounced Russia's fiery airstrike on a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine as a 'new war crime' Tuesday and vowed the West's support for Kyiv would not waver, saying Moscow 'cannot and should not win' the war with its neighbour.
President Joe Biden's top health official said Tuesday that "every option is on the table" when it comes to helping women access abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
A year and a half after the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection, the most memorable recounting of former president Donald Trump's behaviour that day came from a young woman who had graduated from college just a few years earlier.
A scathing letter from an RCMP communications manager released Tuesday says RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki referred to direct pressure from the federal public safety minister to release firearm details in the days after the Nova Scotia mass shooting.
At a time of enhanced global uncertainty and growing Chinese influence, the Canadian government faces mounting pressure to appoint a diplomatic representative in Beijing after the post has sat vacant for six months.
The federal Liberal government has agreed to provide sensitive cabinet documents to the inquiry examining its use of the Emergencies Act during the "Freedom Convoy" protest.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a number of states south of the border have stopped performing abortions. If you're a Canadian who has had an abortion, CTVNews.ca wants to hear from you.
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade opening the door to abortion bans in the U.S., Canadian Tiktokers are welcoming Americans who are considering travelling north of the border to get an abortion.
The European Medicines Agency says it will begin reviewing data to decide if a smallpox vaccine made by the pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic might also be authorized for monkeypox, amid a growing outbreak of the disease across the continent.
Fossils of early human ancestors from a South African cave are 3.4 million to 3.6 million years old -- making them a million years older than previously suspected and shaking up the way researchers understand human origins and evolution.
A U.S. Navy destroyer that engaged a superior Japanese fleet in the largest sea battle of the Second World War in the Philippines has become the deepest wreck to be discovered, according to explorers.
Shares skidded in Asia on Wednesday after another broad decline on Wall Street as markets remain gripped by uncertainty over inflation, rising interest rates and the potential for a recession.
The head of the European Central Bank said Tuesday that it will move gradually to combat soaring consumer prices with interest rate hikes in July and September but will keep its options open to "stamp out" inflation if it surges faster than expected.
The May Garden Chinese Restaurant in Bedford, N.S., has introduced 'Bella' to its team -- a robot that helps deliver customers' orders to their tables.
Calgary is now officially home to the world's tallest mural. German graffiti artist Mirko Reisser, known as DAIM, used a swing-stage to paint and spray-paint the tremendously tall piece of art.
Hockey Canada’s handling of an alleged sexual assault is again under fire as one of its highest profile sponsors, Scotiabank, announces they’re pausing their sponsorship with the Canadian hockey organization.
A coroner's report released Tuesday is calling on Quebec to teach new drivers to open their car doors with their right hand in order to prevent dooring incidents with cyclists.
