Liberal candidate vows to stay in race, despite questionable tweeting history

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This article was published 02/03/2016 (3598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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LIBERAL Leader Rana Bokhari refused to comment Wednesday as one of her candidates came under fire from the NDP for offensive comments he posted about women on social media.

Jamie Hall, who is running for the provincial Liberals in Southdale, has referred to women as “whores” and “skanks” in postings on social media. He was nominated by the Liberals Tuesday.

The businessman, author and technology expert apologized at a news conference for his language on Twitter and Facebook after the New Democrats brought them to light, although he insisted at first he made the comments to promote a work of fiction.

“The tweets in question are from that promotion. They did come from my Twitter account, though, so it’s not an excuse. I am very apologetic for it,” he said, flanked by his girlfriend, Dez Joyal, and Liberal communications director Mike Brown.

Bokhari did not attend the mid-afternoon news conference, and Brown said late Wednesday the party would not announce a decision on Hall’s candidacy until today.

Hall said he wished to remain a candidate, although he left the door open that he might resign. He said he hadn’t yet discussed his posted comments with Bokhari.

“I have told my volunteers that they need to give me today to work through all of this and figure out… (his future),” he said.

According to a screen grab provided by the NDP, Hall tweeted Aug. 17, 2012: “If a whore screams in the bedroom and no one is around to hear it, is she really a whore? #thoughtprovokingquestions #trees” On July 20, 2014, on Facebook, Hall posted: “Never play this card skank @desjoyal in rummy. She plays dirty and wins like a skank. What a skank. #soreloser.”

Speaking for the NDP, Health Minister Sharon Blady called the comments — and several others her party discovered online — “disgusting, hateful, misogynistic.”

She said the fact Bokhari didn’t immediately distance herself from them — and her candidate — doesn’t reflect well on her leadership.

“As a woman, I find it very worrisome that the Liberal leader would stand beside someone that engages in this kind of language and this kind of action,” Blady said.

“Right now, the longer she waits and the less decisive her actions are, the more, frankly, it muddies the reputation of her own party and her own name,” she said.

In a news release Wednesday morning announcing Hall’s candidacy, Bokhari said: “We continue to build a team Manitobans can be proud of. Jamie Hall is the kind of candidate that Manitobans should be excited about because of his ability to deliver better technology services to the province and the cost savings that come with that.”

Brown said Hall had been vetted, but admitted the party was unaware of his controversial postings on social media.

A source told the Free Press the Liberals once had a formal vetting committee, but it was disbanded, in part, because Bokhari thought the process was too slow and wanted to announce candidates more quickly.

Speaking with reporters, Hall first suggested his controversial comments were confined to the promotion of a book.

“It is about a character that has a very difficult time in the dating world. And he’s ultimately looking for the right woman,” he said.

“It is a racy book, absolutely. That’s the thing I love about living in Canada; you can release books that are both creative and a piece of fiction and you’re allowed to have freedom of expression… ”

When it was pointed out he made other sexist comments outside the book-promotion period — in 2012 and 2013 — including the Facebook posting in which he calls his girlfriend a “skank” after losing to her in gin rummy, Hall said: “That’s satire. That’s myself and my girlfriend playing rummy. And my friends know that’s satire.”

He added he is a “very sarcastic and satirical person.”

The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives refused to comment Wednesday about the Liberal candidate’s remarks.

Blady said Hall’s comments came across more as a justification for his actions than regret.

One of the NDP’s star candidates, Wab Kinew, who is running in Fort Rouge, employed sexist and demeaning lyrics against women years ago when he was a rapper.

Blady said the difference is Kinew “has taken ownership” for his past, apologized and wrote a book dealing with it.

“He’s talked about his own personal growth and, frankly, the regret (about) a period of angry youth behaviour,” she said.

Kinew has “come out on the right side of things,” and is “a very strong feminist male,” Blady said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca