Joke blows over Ottawa

By Scott NeufeldThursday, February 1, 2007 http://www.dailycourier.ca/article_930.php

Less than a week has passed since the Liberals called for his resignation but Colin Mayes says the storm has blown over.On Tuesday, parliament’s aboriginal affairs committee met for the first time since the Liberals accused the Conservative MP of promoting a joke they considered racist. Mayes, who chairs the committee, said the issue never came up at the meeting.“Nothing was said. Not a word,” he said. “I think when they really looked at it they realized how unsubstantiated their actions were.”Mayes said that several other members of the opposition came up to him and talked about how “silly” the issue was. He said they have given him their support.

A memo was sent to the rest of the committee clarifying the issue, Mayes said. In the memo, he said he addressed some of the comments that were made in the media.“I wanted to clarify any doubts about the media attention,” he said.Among the mix-ups was a CBC comment that the joke was about Natives. Mayes said the joke was actually about government employees.The former Salmon Arm mayor found himself under the magnifying glass of the national media after one of his e-mails was made public. The message from a local Conservative Party member includes a joke that refers a First Nations man as “chief” and “Tonto.”Mayes’ began his response to the e-mail with the phrase, “good joke.” The Liberal party interpreted the MP’s response as an endorsement of aboriginal stereotypes.

The e-mail was sent to a local media outlet by Miles Lehn who had recently been fired from the board of the local Conservative riding association.“It was definitely the person that (leaked) the e-mail who twisted it into basically a personal attack against myself,” he said.Since the Liberals sent out a press release calling for Mayes’ resignation from the committee, he said he’s yet to receive a negative response from any First Nations people. He said that the comments from Okanagan Indian Band chief Fabian Alexis and others have “uplifted” him.“Quite frankly I’ve had a number of e-mails from aboriginal people just saying how foolish these accusations are,” he said.