Jason Kenney called out on Twitter for poorly worded Aboriginal day message
'20,000 year old settlers. Canada is how old?' Christi Belcourt tweets back
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.
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On Aboriginal Day we honour those who first settled in Canada, and their generations of descendants. <a href="https://t.co/9nPeOx4HJX">pic.twitter.com/9nPeOx4HJX</a>
—@jkenneyIt 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? <a href="https://t.co/EKxKmcRj1A">https://t.co/EKxKmcRj1A</a>
—@christibelcourt<a href="https://twitter.com/jkenney">@jkenney</a> ummmm. I don't think that the indigenous people were the first settlers, probably here before the that happened.
—@Rob_Imrie<a href="https://twitter.com/jkenney">@jkenney</a> Now that's a colonial attitude if ever I've seen one. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/alwaysbeenhere?src=hash">#alwaysbeenhere</a>
—@RedIndianGirlWhat profound unease with losing settler colonial privilege looks like: <a href="https://twitter.com/jkenney">@jkenney</a> trolls Indigenous people. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cdnpoli?src=hash">#cdnpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/GRgBXQMSrw">https://t.co/GRgBXQMSrw</a>
—@IrlbacherSKenney responded to a few Tweets, but failed to understand why people were frustrated by what he originally wrote.
<a href="https://twitter.com/Rob_Imrie">@Rob_Imrie</a> 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<a href="https://twitter.com/Sky_s_The_Limit">@Sky_s_The_Limit</a> You don't think we should honour the first people who came to Canada / North America?
—@jkenney