The moderator of Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next panel apologized Tuesday for telling a teen at a town hall in Calgary on Monday that his parents should spank him.
Bruce McAllister, executive director of the premier’s office, said the comment was “inappropriate.”
“I regret saying it and I apologize,” McAllister wrote in a social media post.
“I’m committed to ensuring these conversations remain respectful and constructive.”
When a teenager tried to ask a question at the Alberta Next town hall in Calgary on Monday, moderator Bruce McAllister cut off his mic and suggested his parents should spank him.
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The apology came after the 17-year-old teen, who has been identified as Evan Li, tried to ask the panel during Monday’s town hall in Calgary about the pending provincewide teachers’ strike.
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McAllister cut off his microphone.
Evan Li is the grade 12 student at Winston Churchill high school in Calgary, who had his mic cut off when he tried to ask a question about the teachers strike at the Alberta Next town hall in Calgary on Monday evening.
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Li could still be heard trying to ask his question, but McAllister interrupted.
“I applaud you coming here to speak. I don’t applaud how you’re trying to speak,” McAllister said. “It’s not making any sense.”
“I know you’d love some chaos, but your parents should turn you over your knee.”
The moderator of Monday’s Alberta Next town hall in Calgary, apologized in an online post, for suggesting a teenager’s parents should spank him, when he tried to ask a question.
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The quip was met with some boos from the crowd, and a woman who was standing in line behind the teen, yelled that it was a “rude” thing for McAllister to say.
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“That is disgraceful,” said the woman.
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“You’re dismissing a teenager!” yelled another person in the crowd.
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On Tuesday, Li said he wants a more personal and public apology from McAllister rather than just an online post.
“It’s just really deplorable and disappointing, and honestly embarrassing,” the Grade 12 student said in an interview.
Li said the only other time he has been spoken to like that was when elementary school bullies picked on him.
“It’s embarrassing for Alberta to be viewed in this way,” he said. “We are a robust democracy where every voice should be given an equal chance to be heard.”
17-year-old Evan Li says the last time he was spoken to in the way McAllister treated him, was when he was picked on by high school bullies.
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Li said he was trying to ask Smith’s panel about the possible teachers’ strike and why her United Conservative Party government funds private charter schools to the degree that it does.
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“It wasn’t even accusatory or anything like that. I just thought, ‘What is the reason behind this?’” he said.
Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said an apology isn’t enough from McAllister.
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“This is not a one-off — all summer he’s been silencing, belittling and insulting Albertans he disagrees with,” said Nenshi.
“Danielle Smith must make things right with the young student, starting with an apology of her own, and she needs to fire her second most senior official for his reprehensible conduct.”
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Smith, at an unrelated news conference in Calgary, rejected Nenshi’s call for dismissal, saying McAllister’s social media apology should suffice.
“None of us are perfect and it’s a very stressful environment, to be moderating events like that,” Smith said.
“I always take the view that you have to engage with people respectfully. That’s my expectation of my staff, and I’ve asked him to do better next time.”
McAllister is a former broadcaster and legislature member of the Wildrose Party.
In 2014, he and Smith crossed the floor to join the governing Progressive Conservatives.
He lost his seat the following year.
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The moderator of the Alberta Next town halls, Bruce McAllister, has been accused of making disparaging comments and cutting off the mic to a number of people during the events, especially if they make critical comments or ask off topic questions.
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As moderator, McAllister was tasked with keeping order and moving the debate forward.
However, at times, he has taken a less impartial approach.
At an Edmonton town hall, he publicly disparaged an attendee who took issue with the panel’s pre-made video for its discussion around immigration.
The attendee said he found the panel’s decision to blame immigrants for high housing costs and overcrowded classrooms “disgusting.”
McAllister shot back. “Get lost. Nobody did that,” he said.
When the crowd member doubled down and repeated that he thought it was disgusting, McAllister interrupted and said, “I think you are.”
At the same event, McAllister compared those who asked off-topic questions to toddlers.
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“Just knock it off or I’ll ask somebody to get you out of here,” he told another attendee.
“Jeez, like, you don’t reward a toddler in the grocery store and give them what they want.”
Cutting off microphones also wasn’t an unusual practice for McAllister, who told crowds before each town hall that they had 45 seconds to speak.
But the time frame didn’t always apply to those making supportive comments, such as for a man in Grande Prairie earlier this month who began his question by telling the premier she had “bigger balls than most men.”
“You can keep going, sir,” McAllister told the man after it was acknowledged he was nearly out of time.
Monday’s town hall was the panel’s last in-person event.
An online town hall is scheduled for Wednesday.
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