Close X
Monday, November 25, 2024
ADVT 
National

Green Party Leader May Very Apologetic About Omar Khadr Remarks

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 11 May, 2015 12:27 PM
    OTTAWA — Green party Leader Elizabeth May says she is "very apologetic" about remarks she made on the weekend that included profanity and insulted the federal cabinet about how it has treated Omar Khadr.
     
    May was among party leaders who addressed Parliament Hill journalists and politicians on Saturday night at their annual press gallery dinner.
     
    Usually, party leaders deliver light-hearted, mainly self-deprecating speeches that include the odd barb thrown at the media.
     
    But May went on at length about being the only female leader and having to claw her way into televised leaders' debates.
     
    Transport Minister Lisa Raitt intervened and attempted to persuade May to end her speech, but instead, May played a recording of "Welcome back Kotter" — a theme song from a 1970s sitcom — and stated that Khadr has "more class than the whole f---ing cabinet."
     
    In a phone interview on Sunday, a hoarse May expressed her regrets for her taste in jokes, her lack of respect for her parliamentary colleagues and her choice of language.
     
    "I wouldn't want anyone to think I was less than respectful for the people with whom I work," May said.
     
    "I apologize that I made an attempt to be funny and edgy....and it didn't work."
     
    May said she was just getting over the flu, had put in a 21-hour work day on Friday, and then had to rise early in British Columbia on Saturday morning to make it to the press gallery event in Gatineau, Que.
     
    "My funny speech wasn't funny. That's not the first time a politician has done that."
     
    In the Khadr section of her speech, May said she meant to make the point that Canada is a country that gives people second chances, and that she hopes Canadians welcome him into their midst.
     
    Khadr, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, was set free on bail last Thursday despite repeated attempts by the federal government to keep him behind bars in Canada.
     
    Now 28, Khadr pleaded guilty in October 2010 before a widely discredited military commission to five war crimes — including murder in the death of Speer, a U.S. special forces soldier.
     
    Khadr spent almost 13 years behind bars — four of them as a convicted war criminal.
     
    He was captured, badly wounded, by American forces in Afghanistan in July 2002, when he was 15 years old. At one time, he was the youngest prisoner at the American prison compound in Guantanamo Bay.
     
    May's remarks left many at the Saturday night gala wondering what had come over her, and sparked a Twitter storm on Sunday.
     
    May said she had no hard feelings towards Raitt for intervening in her speech, and said the two women are friends.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    North Vancouver Residents Displaced After Fire Breaks Out At Housing Co-op

    North Vancouver Residents Displaced After Fire Breaks Out At Housing Co-op
    VANCOUVER — A fire has displaced at least 25 tenants from a North Vancouver housing co-op.The blaze broke out on the second floor of a four-building complex on Thursday.

    North Vancouver Residents Displaced After Fire Breaks Out At Housing Co-op

    Alleged B.C. Auto Thieves Arrested In Okanagan, Remain In Custody

    Alleged B.C. Auto Thieves Arrested In Okanagan, Remain In Custody
    PENTICTON, B.C. — A man and woman who police allege are among the "most wanted" vehicle-crime offenders in B.C.'s Lower Mainland have been arrested in the Okanagan.

    Alleged B.C. Auto Thieves Arrested In Okanagan, Remain In Custody

    Municipal Workers In B.C. Find Child Ok In Stolen Vehicle: Mounties

    Municipal Workers In B.C. Find Child Ok In Stolen Vehicle: Mounties
    HUDSONS HOPE, B.C. — Police in northeastern British Columbia say a three-year-old child has been found safe inside a vehicle that had been reported stolen less than 30 minutes earlier.

    Municipal Workers In B.C. Find Child Ok In Stolen Vehicle: Mounties

    Woman Charged With Arson After Creston, B.C., Fire Causes Critical Injury

    Woman Charged With Arson After Creston, B.C., Fire Causes Critical Injury
    CRESTON, B.C. — RCMP say a 21-year-old woman has been charged with arson after a person suffered critical burns in an apartment fire in Creston, B.C.

    Woman Charged With Arson After Creston, B.C., Fire Causes Critical Injury

    Victoria The Latest B.C. City To Draft New Bylaws For Marijuana Dispensaries

    Victoria has become the latest British Columbia city to draft new bylaws for medical marijuana dispensaries, as Vancouver considers a plan to regulate illegal pot shops.

    Victoria The Latest B.C. City To Draft New Bylaws For Marijuana Dispensaries

    Alexander Lisi, Rob Ford's Former Driver Found Not Guilty Of All Drug Charges

    TORONTO — Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford's friend Alexander (Sandro) Lisi was found not guilty on drug-related charges Friday after a judge attacked the credibility of an undercover officer who was key to the case.

    Alexander Lisi, Rob Ford's Former Driver Found Not Guilty Of All Drug Charges