‘Creative way to make a point’: Alberta premier defends using slap meme of actor

By: The Canadian Press Posted: Last Modified:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is defending the use of a meme from the Oscars as a contemporary way to draw attention to what he considers failing green energy policies.

Read this article for free:


By clicking the button above, an account will be created and you will begin to receive some of our recommended newsletters. You may opt out of any newsletter by visiting your Email and Communication Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/03/2022 (1667 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is defending the use of a meme from the Oscars as a contemporary way to draw attention to what he considers failing green energy policies.

The meme, shared widely online, is a photo of actor Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage over comments Rock made about Smith’s wife at the Hollywood awards show on Sunday.

In the version shared on Kenney’s social media accounts, the word “Reality” is written in text over Smith with “Green Energy Policies” in text over Rock.

Opinions on the premier’s use of the meme have varied online, with some critics saying it promotes violence and questioning the intent of it.

During an unrelated news conference, Kenney defined the word meme to reporters as a “humorous image” copied with slight variations and spread widely.

He says it was a “creative and relevant” way to draw attention to what he considers failed policies by the “green left” — such as a carbon tax — that make life more expensive.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2022.

Will Smith, right, hits presenter Chris Rock on stage while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Chris Pizzello
Will Smith, right, hits presenter Chris Rock on stage while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Chris Pizzello

Related Articles

Rock’s hack crack no excuse for Smith’s shocking slap
The Associated Press Will Smith (right) strikes presenter Chris Rock onstage at the Oscars after Rock made a joke about his wife’s hair loss.
Will Smith apologizes: 'I was out of line and I was wrong'
Will Smith, right, hits presenter Chris Rock on stage while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Oscars audience tops 15 million, exceeding last year
Becky G, center left, and Luis Fonsi, center right, perform
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars and ended up bruising his own reputation
Chris Pizzello - Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Presenter Chris Rock, left, reacts after being hit on stage by Will Smith while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars on Sunday.
Pinkett Smith's hair loss from alopecia at center of spat
Jada Pinkett Smith, left, and Will Smith appear in the audience at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Comedians react with horror at Will Smith's Oscar slap
Will Smith, right, hits presenter Chris Rock on stage while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Will Smith dances with family after Oscar win, shocking slap
Jada Pinkett Smith, from left, Willow Smith, Will Smith, Jaden Smith and Trey Smith arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Oscar Moments: The night emotion won, for better and worse
Billie Eilish, right, and Finneas O'Connell accept the award for best original song for
Will Smith confronts Chris Rock, then wins best actor Oscar
presenter Chris Rock, left, reacts after being hit on stage by Will Smith while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
A wild night in Hollywood at the Oscars
Chris Pizzello - Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Simu Liu, left, and Tiffany Haddish present the award for best international feature film at the Oscars.

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

Backstreet Boys Brian Littrell (left), AJ McLean, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, and Howie Dorough pose for photographers as they arrives at the Much Music Video Awards in Toronto on June 19, 2005. (CP PHOTO/Tobin Grimshaw)

Backstreet Boys’ 12-show Toronto run offers millennials a ticket to simpler times

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Backstreet Boys’ 12-show Toronto run offers millennials a ticket to simpler times

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026

When Chelsea Smith heard the Backstreet Boys were coming to Toronto, she had a simple message for the five men who soundtracked her childhood.

“Here's my credit card, take all my money.”

The 35-year-old Vancouver fan wasn’t bluffing. Having already travelled to Las Vegas to see her teenybopper crushes, she's now preparing to fly across the country for two Toronto concerts, spending roughly $600 on tickets alone.

And she's hardly the only millennial willing to pay a tidy sum to party like it’s 1999.

Read
Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Winnipeg Blue Bombers receiver Nic Demski (centre) said Monday the club’s collapse to Edmonton on Friday was ‘the tale of this year so far,’ but the team is treating the regular-season finale against the B.C. Lions with a playoff game mindset.

Blue and Gold must win regular-season finale to punch post-season ticket

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Preview

Blue and Gold must win regular-season finale to punch post-season ticket

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Yesterday at 6:38 PM CDT

It’s now or never for the 2026 edition of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

For weeks, if not months, they’ve been talking about what they need to do to become a consistently good football team.

We’ve heard endless clichés — things like, “We just gotta look ourselves in the mirror” and “We just have to execute better” — but time and time again, nothing has changed. Now, the clock is about to hit zero, and they find themselves at serious risk of watching the playoffs from the couch.

“I didn’t think, obviously, we’d be in a situation like this,” admitted quarterback Zach Collaros after Monday’s practice at Fort Garry Lions Field. “But we are.”

Read
Yesterday at 6:38 PM CDT
THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/Darryl Dyck Mounties found nearly $1-million in cash that justice officials allege is drug money in a rental Nissan SUV they pulled over for speeding outside Brandon in late July.

Province looks to keep nearly $1M from traffic stop

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Preview

Province looks to keep nearly $1M from traffic stop

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

The RCMP constable could see that Alireza Haghgoo was nervous. The 22-year-old, seated as a passenger in a rental Nissan SUV the Mountie pulled over for speeding outside Brandon in late July, was breathing heavily and tapping his foot constantly.

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT
‘Creative way to make a point’: Alberta premier defends using slap meme of actor

'Creative way to make a point': Alberta premier defends using slap meme of actor

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

'Creative way to make a point': Alberta premier defends using slap meme of actor

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Monday, Mar. 28, 2022

EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is defending the use of a meme from the Oscars as a contemporary way to draw attention to what he considers failing green energy policies.

The meme, shared widely online, is a photo of actor Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage over comments Rock made about Smith's wife at the Hollywood awards show on Sunday.

In the version shared on Kenney's social media accounts, the word "Reality" is written in text over Smith with "Green Energy Policies" in text over Rock.

Opinions on the premier's use of the meme have varied online, with some critics saying it promotes violence and questioning the intent of it.

Read
Monday, Mar. 28, 2022

Best move is to get honest, not ‘even’

Maureen Scurfield 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I just got a racy birthday card in the mail at work, with a letter inside it from an old girlfriend! Her praise of my body and intelligence was extravagant — almost poetic — but it felt really good.

I took it home and showed the card and letter to my wife, to make her jealous, I admit. All she said was, “Perhaps your old girlfriend’s getting into the booze in her old age!” That made me really mad.

Now I suddenly want to call up my ex and go visit her for a weekend. (She lives in another province.) I doubt if my wife would even suspect anything, as I travel a lot for my work.

Plus, when it comes to our own sex life, it seems like my wife couldn’t care less about being with me anymore. My wife’s big excitement is going out with girlfriends and flying to concerts with them. Things have gotten so petty between us now that I wouldn’t mind the feeling of evening things up! Please advise.

SUPPLIED A rendering of Bayer’s new canola research and development facility.

Bayer Canada begins construction on new R&D facility in St. B

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Preview

Bayer Canada begins construction on new R&D facility in St. B

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

Instead of canola on Friday, there was sod.

But in two years’ time, by current estimates, the bare plot of land in a St. Boniface industrial park will hold canola samples and seeds for testing.

Bayer Canada officially broke ground on a 60,000-square-foot research and development facility Friday morning.

“It’s about bringing new and better innovation to farmers,” said Kacy Perry, Bayer Crop Science Canada’s country division head.

Read
Friday, Oct. 16, 2026