The Chief of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Chief Sheldon Sunshine, is calling for an apology from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office after some controversial comments made Thursday by a senior staffer in a social media post.
In a post on X, the executive director of Premier Danielle Smith’s office, Bruce McAllister said, in response to Alberta Chiefs calling for the premier to be investigated for treason, that “people are sick and tired of hearing unrealistic demands from them.”
Describing their demand for an investigation into allegations of treason as “childish nonsense,” McAllister said the chiefs’ priority should be to fix issues such as “devastating addition and overdose crises” that are tearing families apart and described First Nations as being entrenched in poverty, high unemployment and domestic violence.
Responding Friday to the comments, Chief Sunshine said in a statement that if such comments “were made by a senior staffer in a Premier’s office in any other province, they would be fired.”
Alberta Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi also called for McAllister to be fired on Friday.
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Nenshi says McAllister’s commentary echoes bullying behaviour from Smith and a pattern of disrespect from her United Conservatives.
He says if the premier wants to send the message that she respects Albertans, she should start by firing McAllister.
“These are dog whistles,” said Nenshi, who added that “(McAllister’s) entire world is about making and keeping people angry.”
“We cannot afford to normalize this type of racist language in Alberta,” said Chief Sunshine, who added, “We look forward to his public apology.”
When asked for a response to the Chief’s comments, an official in Premier Danielle Smith’s office sent a written response to Global News that said, “Accusing elected officials of treason is dangerous and unacceptable rhetoric that only fuels division. It must be rejected entirely.”
“We want to work collaboratively on a government-to-government basis to make our communities stronger. When the Treaty Chiefs are ready to do that, we’ll look forward to it,” the statement added.
–with files from The Canadian Press.
We now live in a world where speaking the truth has become offensive.
Better settle down chief. Those
in glass houses and what not…
I have been called a racist. I have been called a bigot. I have been called a colonist.
But I have NEVER been called a liar….
Heather Mead, you are 100% right – summed it up in a nutshell.
Classic example of someone who can dish it out but can’t take it.
this is what happens when you don’t have to work for anything or get a job like everyone else you become DEMANDING… how about cut them off of leeching from the government .like everyone else that has to go to work you don’t have time to get drunk and act the fool
Canadians are sick and tired of this. If you want the land back, have it back. However, you get the land. Everything else comes with us. Hospitals, schools, infrastructure, utilities, housing, water treatment plants and the list goes on and on and on. Most importantly, the family services/ welfare and transfer payments. You have had many, many chances to derive substantial income from your land yet have gotten greedy and now Canadian taxpayers have had enough. Reconciliation, my ass.
Shut up chug go set a church on fire or some siding & make up some lies about sewage pipes being buried children.
For a special interests group that regularly likes to take the law into their own hands when they don’t get their own way all the while taking money from US interests that benefit from landlocked Alberta oil, I’d be a little more careful about throwing around the T word.
How many decades have we heard about how evil Canada is, how racist the Indian Act is, and how Indigenous Peoples have been fighting to get out from both. Seems like Alberta separatists and a lot of Indigenous Peoples have a lot more in common than these chiefs would ever admit. So it seems to me that this is more about Chiefs losing their money supply than it is about anything else.
Time to just say “No”.
No more money
No more acknowledgement
No more involvement in decision-making
No more land
No more treaties
Nothing,yet get nothing more.
Don’t like it ? Too bad !
I wish Canada treated the indigenous like everyone else like the Spanish did in South America with their indigenous. Everyone lives together and everyone is fine with it.
People may not like some of the things that the government says or does but they represent the majority. If someone has a problem they should confront the majority not the representatives of the majority.
You may not like the truth, but trying to silence it doesn’t change the facts.
Bruce stated clear facts and the denialism of those who refuse to accept them is the real problem that needs to be addressed here.
I demand an apology and a settlement that’s 2 fold.
Indigenous folks got 23 billion……why are there still a couple thousand Indigenous folks taking up space In our city? If i go ont their land I get a ticket …..why am I paying for their homeless?….the corruption In the tribes would be funny If it weren’t o completely corrupt
The comments by Bruce is 1000 % correct.Enough is Enough
The huge amount of billons money given is outrageous and if anyone should apologize it is the chiefs for taking all that money and yet not a penny has gone to improving their water or housing or drug problems,so where does money go.
We are fedup of supporting these people.
Fix your problems on the reserves you selfish people
Premier: Elected by Albertans to run the province.
ANY random special interest group leader aka Chief: Irrelevant
when i was a kid in school we had a bunch of Indians in class , they where to most rude demanding people i seen, i felt bad for one so i lent him my pen, like a baboon he smashes it into the paper and hands it back laughing, that was my lesson
Surround her office and take her out with bows and arrows
Is it racist if it’s true? Is it a stereotype if it’s true?
Blowing Sunshine up our collective ass. We’re not buying it.
@Ralph.
Don’t like direct democracy?
Defund First Nations.
The Chief is irrelevant and has no authority. We don’t care about his opinion.
Trudeau the fruit cake started this. give an inch take a mile.. nice going!!
Let’s have more referendums!!!
What a waste of UCP tax money
Is Cheif Sunshine back from the Casino yet? Maybe he should be charged with treason for blocking resource projects and railways.
Anonymous go f your self ,
@elbows:
phucking racist misspells his first attempt at a word.
lol…
fist nation chiefs and councils get millions of dollars a year , as their people live in poverty. houses with smashed out windows bad drinking water, the chiefs and council f their own people with greed , half live on the street, or die , liberal government must be offering them big pay outs
this is what happens when you suck off the system, don’t have to work or get a job like everyone else, ..you become DEMANDING
But didn’t liar Smith tell us she’s Cherokee?
Yes she did.
Pretendindian.
Smith makes even trump sick.
Smith is right.
As long as the sunshines…
Somebody didn’t finish elementary school
Sorry you feel so entitled.
It is very strange that landownership is a wester culture as you have paperwork that says you Bought the land and now own it.
Merely living off the land as Nomads does not make the whole of Canada , Native land!!!
Unelected corrupt Chiefs are now calling the shots? Dont think so.
Excellent comment from Official Knowledge Keeper (below).
The truth was spoken/posted by McAllister and NO apology of any kind is warranted.
32 Billion dollars a year of taxpayers money spent on indigenous and they literally have nothing to show for it… Except the Chiefs residences and vehicles! They need to show the taxpayers exactly how they can afford all this luxury while their own people live in shanties.
Yes, people, namely taxpayers, are sick and tired of these unreasonable demands. Stop the gravy train now!
He does not deserve one.
Did this Chief take a payout from Tides Foundation to block natural resource projects. Sorry, I don’t take advice from someone who allows his people to live in squalor.
Chief Sunshine should apologize for his comments. But that won’t happen.
There is no “racist” language with MacAllosters comments. He is merely stating the truth about what is going on with this demographic. As usual the Cheifs play the victim card and play others for their situation.
The feathered ones and fat Nenshi continually babble the most stupidest things to the media. I have yet to hear any apologizes or retractions.
Best to just ignore them like the yappy little dogs they are.
What MacAllister said is true. Seems the Indigenous can throw stones but can’t handle the truth in return.
AS far as I am concerned they can take a flying leap. They can dish it but can’t take it.
The way ucp and rest of the red necks think about our native people, I hope the new immigrants will teach you a lesson real soon.
Ucp and even their toilet cleaners this shows how they are an entitled bunch. If the tables were turned these people would … remember the convoy?
Oh my day, all these comments ar3 from repugnant racist pos. *You* put the indigenous where they are when you colonised. How you subsequently treated them led them poverty and drug addiction etc. Jesus’s. The rank entitlement on white people. Get over yourselves.
The chief is correct by treaty we are using their land they have a say.
the chiefs should apology’s to everyone in Alberta wanting to separate , and Danielle Smith just for being retards
Seems the truth is hard to reconcile. You (the indigenous) keep asking for more money, loan guarantees in the billions to invest in projects so they have indigenous ownership. But how most of you live on reserves is deplorable. Drugs, gangs, crime, shanty homes, the list goes on and on. Now that you and your people have been publicly called out, you suddenly want an apology. Here is some free consultation. DO BETTER, MUCH BETTER of taking care of your people with the free grift you beg for! And maybe someday the citizens of Alberta can/will take you seriously! Currently you are just a Chief (with a pretty new truck by the way) of a third world group of people who, by how you live, and what you show the world HAVE NO F_(KING AMBITION. Please, I beg you to prove me wrong! I find it quite funny how immigrants from actual 3rd world countries come here and work and contribute and love much better than you. Perhaps we could start a reverse TFW and send you and your people to live in the 3rd world, because it seems like you are happy to live in squalor and should be quite at home there….
Why?
If you threaten illegal unrule, expect a legal response. Don’t threaten to blockade roads.
Rub these f *ucking useless chugs out!!
Sunshine calls Smith a traitor and demands a criminal investigation, yet he wants her to apologize? Amazing entitlement.
McAllister spoke the truth, so he does not deserve to be fired. The Chief should be arrested for hate crimes. – They are the ones pulling the race card. McAllister is not racist. Sunshine is the racist who thinks Natives deserve more rights than the rest of Albertans.
Shame on Sunshine.
Ok
So-called Indian band chiefs can blow it out his pipe. Grifter. Full stop.