Tory MP accused of emailing 'denigrating' joke

Canadian Press Updated Thu. Jan. 25 2007 6:17 PM ET CTV.ca

OTTAWA -- The Conservative head of the Commons native affairs committee says Liberal demands that he step down over a "denigrating'' e-mail are the worst of petty politics. "This is just a cheap, partisan smear levelled against me,'' Colin Mayes said in an interview after initially ducking out of a meeting on Parliament Hill without speaking to reporters. "She has taken an e-mail and completely misrepresented it,'' he said of Liberal MP and aboriginal affairs critic Anita Neville. "I find no humour (in anything) that insults the culture or the heritage of any group of people. Those types of jokes are completely inappropriate.''

At issue is an e-mail that Mayes says he received sometime last summer. It includes a joke about an "Indian'' who walks into a Tim Hortons with a shotgun in one hand and a buffalo in the other. The server refers to the native man alternately as "Tonto'' and "chief.'' The native man drinks his coffee, then "blasts the buffalo with the shotgun, causing parts of the animal to splatter everywhere, then just walks out.'' The next day, the native man returns. "Whoa, Tonto!'' says the server. "We're still cleaning up your mess from yesterday. What was all that about, anyway? "The Indian smiles and proudly says, `Training for an upper management position in Canadian Government: Come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull, leave mess for others to clean up, and disappear for rest of day.' '' Mayes's response to the e-mail began "Good joke.''

It was leaked to a British Columbia television station by a man who was recently fired from the board of the local Conservative association in Mayes's riding of Okanagan-Shuswap. Miles Lehn was voted off the board, ironically, by directors who took offence to an e-mail he said was written in jest. It reflected concerns about a perceived political shift to the religious right, and inferred that Mayes and his wife may wish to keep "godless infidels'' off the riding board. Mayes suggested Thursday that Lehn's recent firing was behind the flap.

Asked if he still thinks the story of the native man in the coffee shop was a "good joke,'' Mayes said he couldn't really remember the content. "I get hundreds of e-mails.'' Besides, he added, he may have intended to convey sarcasm. Mayes was less circumspect when buttonholed by a B.C. television reporter earlier this week. "I just laugh,'' he said of any suggestion he's racist. They're just grasping at straws.'' Mayes said Thursday his wife is Japanese and his daughter's two adopted sons are from Haiti.

In any case, he said, he feels no need to apologize or step down as chairman of the Commons aboriginal affairs committee. "I have had many compliments about my chairmanship . . . from the (Assembly of First Nations) National Chief Phil Fontaine and even from the members of the opposition.'' Fontaine was not immediately available for comment. The Liberals called for Mayes's immediate ouster and an apology. "As chair, his responsibility is to ensure that aboriginals from coast to coast to coast get a fair, unbiased hearing at committee,'' Neville said.