Progressive Conservative candidate Matt Whitman has apologized for his “Chinese fire drill” stunt.
Whitman posted a YouTube video last week of himself yelling the racially-charged phrase before exiting and then running around his car.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday afternoon, the Hammonds Plains–St. Margarets councillor said he wasn’t aware of the term’s racist connotations.
“I apologize for my lapse of judgement and my unintentional use of what I now understand to be an insensitive term,” Whitman writes. “I never meant to offend or hurt anyone. I have learned from this experience.”
The video was removed this week after media questions, with Whitman telling Global and the Canadian Press that it had become a “distraction.” He quickly brushed past reporters on his way to council chambers Tuesday afternoon, refusing to comment on the matter.
The phrase “Chinese fire drill” is best-known these days for the roadside game normally played by teenagers, but using “Chinese” to refer to a scene of confusion and incomprehension dates back to World War I. According to NPR: “After the two world wars, ‘Chinese’ continued to be used as a descriptor to indicate things that were hasty, cheap or amateur.”
The RCMP are apparently now investigating whether the councillor’s videotaped actions were a traffic violation.
It’s not the first run-in Whitman’s had with RCMP, nor the first time his sloppy social media use has gotten the councillor into hot water.
Last winter he was ordered by Regional Council to make a public apology after publishing “inappropriate tweets” about an RCMP officer. That was around the same time Whitman appeared to casually reveal confidential information while denigrating former CAO Richard Butts in a radio interview.
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This article appears in Mar 23-29, 2017.
While childish, it’s nothing to be upset over unless you’re overly-sensitive.
I had no idea that a “Chinese fire drill” was perceived in any way derogatory. And I imagine the majority of those offended were white, female, middle-class, 20-somethings with too much time on their hands.
The politically-correct movement will cause the destruction of human rights in an attempt to appease their small group.
“The RCMP are apparently now investigating…” Are you fucking kidding me? This is the real story… how our over worked, under staffed law enforcement units can find the time to exact revenge for some pretty benign comments made by good old Matt Whitman a couple years ago. I believe they even made him apologize for calling them out on a perceived, and rightly so, dick move of ticketing someone for plowing out a cul de sac. As much as I think that Matt Whitman is a wanker, it’s pretty pathetic that vindictive police practices aren’t part of a nothing story, actually making it a story. Matt Whitman may love wearing his mint flavored shoes, but cramming both feet in your mouth, weekly, surely isn’t RCMP investigation worhty.
Probably The Coast or even old Jacob himself wanted the police investigation…
you can’t hold a cell phone while in the driver’s seat of a car whether its moving or stopped on the street. The video clearly shows him with the phone in hand while the car is on the street, its definitely not on the shoulder of the road. Anyone who has gotten one of those $300 tickets understands. Just because Whitman is a politician, the law is the law.
Well, I guess if police are going to lose about 30% of their workload when marijuana is legalized, they are going to have to find something for all these cops to do. Look out Twitter and Facebook users, the long arm of the law is bored!!!
The mere whiff of a slight, made in humor, results in the offender offering up his balls on a plate.
Way to grovel Matt…
I’m not a white, female, 20-something and I expect more from our city’s representatives. For frig sake, it’s 2017. At best, it was a dim-witted and tone-deaf attempt at humour and, at worst, racist. At minimum, it was offensive and he ought to know better.