York Centre Conservative Candidate Tiangson offers no apology for racist Tweet

Conservative Candidate Julius A. Tiangson Tweet questions the level of “Blackness” of US Senator Kamala Harris

The issue of race has once again injected itself into another highly contested riding, this time coming from Conservative candidate Julius A. Tiangson. The riding of York Centre has several high profile candidates but most notability Max Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada.

In a Tweet sent out from Tiangson’s personal page which has now been deleted, he calls into question US Senator and Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris “Blackness”. Senator Harris is a biracial politician with Jamaican and South Asian parents.

Tiangson, who is also a minority, tagged former Candidate for the Conservative Party Leadership Leslyn Lewis indicated she was a “legit black” person as she is not biracial.

The Daily Scrum reached out to the Tiangson campaign for an official statement and was provided the following:

“I won’t let the Liberals distract voters here from the many ethical scandals surrounding this government. As an ethnic minority who immigrated to this country, I think it’s great to see Kamala Harris running for Vice President. Liberals using an out of context tweet won’t derail the hard work we’re doing to stand up for the Canadians left behind by this government.” Said Julius Tiangson Campaign

The Tiangson Campaign was asked for clarity to how the Tweet was being taken out of context by the media but they did not respond. A senior official from the campaign said “the fact that the media is covering this story is a dumb issue”.

The Senior official from the campaign made several “off the record” comments that clearly indicates they were oblivious to the inflammatory Tweet from their candidate and its racial overtone. What was clearly lacking in the statement put out by the Tiangson campaign was an apology.

Even if it was not sincere, an apology to the many people that identify as biracial or black for his comments. In the climate of Black Lives Matter and a riding that has a significant amount of Afro-Canadian voters, Tiangson may have just derailed his own campaign.

Note: The Daily Scrum News also reached out to Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole and Haldimand Norfolk Candidate Leslyn Lewis for comments but we did not receive a response.

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