National Post: Did Laurie Hawn just apologize for his remarks against Canadian business leaders?
Laurie Hawn has (kind of, maybe, sort of?) apologized on his Facebook page after people innundated his online and social media platforms with messages urging him to #SaySorryLaurie. Big thanks to our community, this would never have happened without you speaking out! Now let's keep up the pressure for a full retraction and a proper apology. Article by Jake Edmiston for the National Post A Canadian tech CEO says the government cast him as unpatriotic for opposing the anti-terror bill. But the Tory MP who made the comments in question says he was completely misinterpreted.
“I could have chosen my words more carefully. For that, I apologize,” Laurie Hawn, MP for Edmonton Centre, wrote in a Facebook post Thursday.
In prepared remarks to the House of Commons last week, Hawn referenced an open letter published in the National Post. In the letter, dozens of business leaders — including the heads of prominent tech companies like Hootsuite, Shopify and Slack — criticized Bill C-51.
Here’s what Hawn said:
“We will never apologize for taking jihadi propaganda out of circulation and in my view the opposition should certainly not advocate for retaining it. Several NDP members have cited an op-ed by some high-tech business owners critical of the bill. I do admit that it’s nice to see the NDP supporting business in some way, but I digress. I would suggest that if websites providing content-hosting services or other businesses are profiting from the dispersal of this type of horrific material, they should seriously consider their business model and their lack of commitment to the values that bind us as Canadians.”
David Christopher, a spokesperson for the Open Media group that orchestrated the open letter, took Hawn’s comments as an of the Conservatives’ with-us-or-against-us reasoning — akin to former public safety minister Vic Toew’s infamous “stand with us or with the child pornographers” remark.
- Read more at the National Post
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