UCP candidate resigns after claiming teachers showed pornography to kids

The United Conservative Party candidate in Lethbridge-West resigned Thursday after claiming Alberta teachers have shown pornography to students and helped change their gender identity without the knowledge of their parents. 

Torry Tanner made the remarks in a video created during her nomination campaign, which was circulated on social media Wednesday. 

"Alarmingly, we are seeing increasing instances where kids, even those attending kindergarten, are being exposed to pornographic materials or worse yet, having teachers help them change their gender identity with absolutely no parental consent or knowledge whatsoever," she said.

"This needs to be stopped immediately."

Tanner offered no evidence of this alleged behaviour in her 50-second video. She won the nomination in Lethbridge-West in mid-March. 

Tanner removed the video from social media on Wednesday at the request of the UCP. On Thursday, Tanner announced her resignation in a statement issued by the party. 

"During the nomination process I made a video that, at its core, spoke to my commitment to protecting children," Tanner said.

"However, it's clear that my choice of words have distracted not only from the issue I was trying to discuss, but are being used by my political opponents to hurt our chances of winning across the province." 

Premier Danielle Smith said she will appoint another candidate after consulting with the constituency association in Lethbridge-West. NDP MLA Shannon Phillips currently represents the constituency. She is seeking a third term in office.

UCP must disavow comments

Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers' Association, said Tanner's allegations are false and upsetting. He said they target and create fear among LGBTQ2S teachers, students and community members.

Schilling said Tanner didn't apologize in her statement for the hurt and fear she caused, only noting that her continued candidacy could hurt the UCP's fortunes in the May 29 provincial election. 

Schilling says Premier Danielle Smith and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange need to call out these views as unacceptable. 

"A comment came out yesterday from the party saying that this did not reflect the party's policies," Schilling said. "Yet this person was still vetted as a candidate. 

"They may have taken the video down, but they haven't disavowed themselves of the comments in that video."

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said she is troubled that comments such as Tanner's normalize hatred.

Like Schilling, Notley said the UCP needs to do more than delete the video and make Tanner go away. 

"The UCP should have immediately fired her as a candidate and they should have then apologized to a whole range of Albertans for allowing somebody with views that discriminatory to be their candidate," Notley said.

"Instead, they simply took no responsibility.

"They took down the video as though that was good enough, and then she walked away on her own accord. But it does not reflect well on the UCP and the standard that they are requiring of their candidates."