Appeals for Alberta premier to fire speechwriter who called residential schools ‘bogus genocide story’

The speechwriter also said that young First Nation Canadians are "ripe recruits for radical segregationist movements, perhaps even violent insurgencies," before attacking public education for "uncritically regurgitating the genocide story as if it were fact."

Kenney said he "profoundly disagrees" with the speechwriter's comments—dating back to 2013—but did not say whether he would fire them or not, according to the CBC.

"Somebody who was a journalist for 40 years undoubtedly wrote things with which I disagree. That does not reflect or change the policy of the government of Alberta," added the premier.

NDP leader Rachel Notley unsurprisingly called the essay "racist." Notley went on to say that "it is not a poorly worded tweet or document of the distant past. It was written deliberately and recently."

"It is disturbing to think how many of the premier's public statements over the past year have been composed by someone who harbours such hatred toward Indigenous people," she added.

The speechwriter was hired by the premier in 2019. They previously knew he other from when Kenney was a government minister, where the speechwriter worked for then-prime minister Harper.