Petitions call for Gormley’s resignation

John Gormley (ckom.com)

John Gormley is feeling the backlash from a controversial tweet reacting to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.

Two petitions are calling for the News Talk Radio host and StarPhoenix columnist to resign.

“This petition calls on Gormley to issue a legitimate apology that recognizes the magnitude of his words, and to subsequently resign from his positions at the StarPhoenix and News Talk 650. His tweet was hateful and has the potential to promote violence against Muslims,” one petition reads.

“For him to remain on the air in Saskatchewan after making those comments would send a message that those sentiments are normal and widely held here,” the other states.

The tweet, which has since been deleted, read, “Me: Next guy in a Western democracy who chants ‘Allah Ahkbar’ (sic) we shoot. Wife: Don’t be this way #Angry."

“Allahu akbar” is the Arabic phrase for “God is great.” A representative of the Islamic Association of Saskatchewan told CTV News the phrase is used in prayer and often said more than 20 to 30 times per day.

Gormley apologized for the tweet Monday on his show, but many say the apology was inadequate — one petition described it as “half-hearted.”

The apology opened with Gormley calling the tweet “dumb” before turning into a discussion on reactions to the tweet.

“It was a dumb thing to say. You shouldn’t counsel shooting people, so I clearly apologize if I offended anybody,” Gormley said, “but, holy cow, the social justice warriors are all out there going, ‘Gormley should be fired’ — and, of course, it generally takes a lot more than that to fire me.”

CTV News reached out to Gormley for a comment, but he has yet to respond.

More than 2,000 people have so far signed the petitions.