N.S. politician apologizes for insensitivity in ‘Chinese fire drill!’ video
Posted March 28, 2017 7:22 am.
Last Updated March 28, 2017 5:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – A Halifax councillor and provincial Tory candidate has apologized for racially insensitive language he used on a video posted to his YouTube page.
Coun. Matt Whitman had posted a video showing him yelling “Chinese fire drill!” as he and a friend scrambled from a car.
Whitman removed the short video Sunday, a week after he posted it.
At the time, he said it had become a “distraction,” but on Tuesday he apologized after accusations of racial insensitivity.
Whitman called it a lapse in judgement, and said he didn’t mean to use what he now understands is “an insensitive term.”
He said he never meant to offend or hurt anyone, and has learned from the experience.