Conservative MP Jason Kenney has been in the news a lot this week, but it’s a tweet he posted on National Aboriginal Day that is drawing the attention of the Indigenous community.
On Aboriginal Day we honour those who first settled in Canada, and their generations of descendants. pic.twitter.com/9nPeOx4HJX
— @jkenney
It didn’t take long for Kenney to be called out for the poorly worded tweet.
“Calling Indigenous [Peoples] settlers? … Canada is how old?” questioned Christi Belcourt.
Oh puleeze. Calling Indigenous Ppls settlers? Yeah right, 20,000 year old settlers. Canada is how old? https://t.co/EKxKmcRj1A
@jkenney ummmm. I don’t think that the indigenous people were the first settlers, probably here before the that happened.
@jkenney Now that’s a colonial attitude if ever I’ve seen one. #alwaysbeenhere
What profound unease with losing settler colonial privilege looks like: @jkenney trolls Indigenous people. #cdnpoli https://t.co/GRgBXQMSrw
Kenney responded to a few Tweets, but failed to understand why people were frustrated by what he originally wrote.
@Rob_Imrie I don’t follow. The ancestors of our aboriginal people were the first to come to North America. Not really a point of contention.
— @jkenney
@Sky_s_The_Limit You don’t think we should honour the first people who came to Canada / North America?
— @jkenney