MP Colin Mayes says he won't resign

well, as a resident of this riding, i think Colin should resign. and obviously, if Colin doesn't find his actions wrong, then perhaps he should have to take some self help courses on this subject! and just as important, is why "Miles Lehn, who said he was booted off the riding association's board of directors Monday because of his criticism of Mayes, accused the MP of racism in the CHBC broadcast on Tuesday. ''To me that's the same as writing the e-mail,'' Lehn said of the MP's ''good joke'' response."

Tory MP won't resign for praising Indian e-mail joke
Romeo St. Martin [PoliticsWatch updated 6:15 p.m., January 25, 2007]

OTTAWA — A B.C. Conservative MP said Thursday he will not resign as head of the aboriginal affairs committee over a controversy in which he approved a joke e-mail that the Liberals are calling racist. ...

Tory MP won't resign for praising Indian e-mail joke
Romeo St. Martin [PoliticsWatch updated 6:15 p.m., January 25, 2007]

OTTAWA — A B.C. Conservative MP said Thursday he will not resign as head of the aboriginal affairs committee over a controversy in which he approved a joke e-mail that the Liberals are calling racist.

As well, Tory MP Colin Mayes is demanding the Liberals apologize to him for levelling the racism allegations.

A B.C. TV station reported this week that Mayes received the email from a fellow Tory that began "An Indian walks into Tim Horton's . . ." and ends with a punch line intended to poke fun at the perceived irresponsibility of senior public servants.

> Read the Joke Here

However, in the e-mail the person behind the counter at the Tim Horton's refers to the Indian as "chief" and "Tonto," names which the opposition Liberals described as "racist"

Mayes replied to the email with the words "good joke." The emails were provided to the TV station by a man who was recently fired by Mayes' riding association.

The Liberals called for Mayes to step down as chair of the aboriginal affairs committee on Thursday.

"It is unfortunate that Mr. Mayes would support and find funny something that is so insulting to First Nations," Liberal MP Anita Neville said in a statement.

"His attitude indicates that he is not qualified to chair the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs. He should resign immediately as chair and apologize to First Nations people. As Chair his responsibility is to ensure that Aboriginals from coast to coast to coast get a fair, unbiased hearing at committee."

Later Thursday, Mayes issued a statement in which he accused Neville of levelling a "cheap, partisan smear" and of "completely" misrepresenting his email remark.

Mayes said in his statement that he finds "no humour that insults the culture or heritage of any group people" in the e-mail. "Those types of jokes are completely inappropriate."

"I am proud to be the chair of the Parliamentary Aboriginal Affairs Committee and look forward to continuing in my duties," his statement concludes.

Mayes was named chair of the committee in the spring after another Tory MP, Maurice Vellacott, resigned following comments he made about Supreme Court judges.

It is not the first time Mayes has been the subject of controversy.

Earlier this year, Mayes issued an apology after he wrote a letter to a local newspaper suggesting some journalists should be put in jail for writing misleading stories.


Arrows fly over e-mail
Scott Neufeld January 26, 2007 Vernon Daily Courier

Federal Liberals are demanding that Okanagan-Shuswap MP Colin Mayes resign as chair of a committee on Aboriginal affairs after learning of his response to an e-mail joke.
Liberal Indian Affairs critic Anita Neville had not seen the full e-mail, but said she was shocked by Mayes’ response to a joke about First Nations people. She said he owes Aboriginals an apology.
“This joke, with its reference to ‘chief’ and ‘tonto’ and its fractured English, is a classic example of the old negative stereotypes that lead to the denigration of Canada’s First Nations people,” she said. “He didn’t make the joke but he reinforced stereotypes of Aboriginal people.”
Mayes responded to the e-mail by saying “good joke.”
The joke was included in an e-mail sent to Mayes from a local party member on Oct. 21, 2006. After the Liberals distributed a press release about the e-mail exchange, media outlets across the country poun-ced on the story.
In an interview from his Ottawa office on Thurs-day, Mayes scoffed at Neville’s remarks.
“I’m quite upset about the cheap partisan smear that Liberal Anita Neville is making against me,” Mayes said. “She has taken an e-mail comment and completely misrepresented it.”
What was most surprising Mayes said is that Neville has been complimentary of his work on the committee and told him he was “very fair” as chairman.
When asked if she had spoken to any First Nations people who had taken offence to the remark, Neville initially said no, because she had been in meetings all day, but then changed her answer.
“I’ve heard from a number of people,” she said. “They were quite appalled by it.”
Neville said that Mayes should have simply deleted the e-mail and not responded to it. “Mr. Mayes should know better,” she said.
Mayes fired back saying that he does not find humour in jokes that insult the culture or heritage of anyone. He said he comes from a multicultural family with a wife of Japanese heritage and two adopted grandchildren from Haiti.
This isn’t the first time that an e-mail has landed a local Conservative in hot water. Former Conservative board member Miles Lehn was fired earlier this week because of an e-mail that some other directors took offence to.
In August, Mayes’ wife Jacquie apologized when she claimed “we are being attacked by principalities and powers that are evil” in an e-mail about Vernon Daily Courier managing editor David Wylie.

Tory MP criticized for praising derogatory joke
Peter O'Neil, CanWest News Service
January 26, 2007

Colin Mayes, the Conservative head of the Commons native affairs committee, says Liberal demands that he step down over a "denigrating" e-mail are the worst of petty politics.

OTTAWA - B.C. Conservative MP Colin Mayes angrily criticized and rejected a Liberal demand Thursday that he resign from a parliamentary committee over an e-mail in which he praised a derogatory joke about an Indian, the Liberals said Thursday.

Mayes, member of Parliament for Okanagan-Shuswap, replied ''good joke'' in an Oct. 21, 2006 e-mail response to a tale about an aboriginal man who, while holding a shotgun and speaking in broken English, enters a coffee shop and has an exchange with an employee who calls him ''chief'' and ''Tonto.''

Liberal MP Anita Neville said Mayes, who withdrew his published statement last year that journalists should be jailed for writing inaccurate stories, must apologize to First Nations and resign as chairman of the standing committee on aboriginal affairs and northern development.

"This joke - with its reference to 'chief' and 'Tonto' and its fractured English - is a classic example of the old negative stereotypes that lead to the denigration of Canada's First Nations people," Neville said in a statement.

"Today's society finds it rightly unacceptable for anyone, never mind an elected public official, to speak of our aboriginal population in this manner.''

Mayes did not return a phone call but issued a statement attacking the Liberals.

''I categorically dismiss the cheap partisan smear leveled against me by Liberal MP Anita Neville. She has taken an e-mail comment and completely mis-represented it. She should apologize. I find no humour that insults the culture or the heritage of any group of people. Those types of jokes are completely inappropriate.''

He said he's ''proud'' of his work as chairman, will remain in the job, and said Neville's criticism is ''surprising and disappointing because she ''recently complemented (sic) me on the good work I was doing as chair.''

Tory caucus chairman Rahim Jaffer also accused the Liberals of launching a hurtful and ''cheap'' political attack against the MP.

''From what I understand he was very hurt, very dismayed, by the way this was being smeared against his character.''

Mayes, confronted about the e-mail by a journalist in Vernon, B.C. earlier this week, said he isn't racist but acknowledged he could have chosen better words in his reply.

''I don't know what my response was, and if it was that, then you're right,'' he told a CHBC TV reporter. ''It wasn't meant to be'' an endorsement of the joke, Mayes said.

Mayes, 58, is a former businessman and mayor of Salmon Arm, B.C.

He has faced criticism from fellow Conservatives, particularly after he was forced to withdraw his published statement about the need for a law to jail journalists.

OPTIONAL END

Miles Lehn, who said he was booted off the riding association's board of directors Monday because of his criticism of Mayes, accused the MP of racism in the CHBC broadcast on Tuesday. ''To me that's the same as writing the e-mail,'' Lehn said of the MP's ''good joke'' response.