Manitoba native leader wants apology for ex-Tory youth president’s racial remark

WINNIPEG – Manitoba’s top aboriginal leader has cancelled a meeting with the provincial Progressive Conservatives over a racist comment made by the former president of the party’s youth wing.

Grand Chief Derek Nepinak (NEEP’-ih-nack) of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is also demanding a full public apology to First Nations.

Braydon Mazurkiewich (mah-ZUHR’-kih-wich) was ousted as Tory youth leader last week after posting what he admitted was a racist comment on his Facebook page.

He said he was upset about a planned urban reserve in Winnipeg on a former defence base designed for — quote — “hard-working men and women of the military, not free-loading Indians.”

Nepinak says in a letter to Tory Leader Brian Pallister that Mazurkiewich’s ouster was nothing more than political correctness.

The chief is offering to sit down with Pallister and his caucus to discuss ways to overcome “misinformation” about aboriginal people.