Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre defended his decision on Friday to speak to a think tank that has come under fire for comments on boarding schools and discrimination.
“We talk to groups we disagree with all the time,” Poilievre said in an interview after his speech to the Frontier Center for Public Policy in Winnipeg.
In 2018, the center ran radio ads, which were soon pulled, saying it was a myth that residential schools were robbing Indigenous children of their childhoods.
Last summer, the center posted a comment on its website saying that stories of students being killed and secretly buried were highly suspicious, if not completely false. And last month, the center published an article saying that policies against white men constitute the only systemic discrimination that exists.
Federal Liberal cabinet minister Dan Vandal, who represents Winnipeg, accused Poilievre of promoting ideas and organizations that do not represent Winnipeg or Manitoba.
Mark Miller, the federal minister for Crown-Indigenous Relations, also criticized the Conservative leader.
“In 2008, Mr Poilievre rightly apologized for saying that residential school survivors, many of whom were very old, needed to learn the value of hard work. Today’s stunt calls that apology into question,” a post on Miller’s Twitter account read.
Poilievre said his feelings are clear.
“Obviously I support reconciliation and believe that boarding schools are an ugly and horrific stain on our country’s history.”
Poilievre also hit back at opponents, saying Liberal and NDP politicians have spoken to the border center in the past.
His team provided examples, including former federal finance minister Paul Martin, who gave an interview about the center 21 years ago, and former Manitoba NDP governor general and premier Ed Schreier speaking at a luncheon at the center in 2013, 29 years after last held public office.
Poilievre also compared the situation to federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government after Trudeau admitted to using blackface and brownface in costumes during his youth.
Officials at the border center did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Poilievre’s speech was part of a one-day visit to the Manitoba capital, where a by-election is expected soon to fill the south-central Winnipeg seat held by Liberal MP Jim Carr, who died in December.
The seat has a long liberal tradition, although the Conservatives won it for a term in 2011.
Poilievre said he would participate in the campaign and expressed optimism.
“I think the people of Manitoba have suffered enough under Trudeau and they want a change.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on January 13, 2023.
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