Auschwitz flak disconnects Johnstone phone-in town hall

News Sep 25, 2015 by Richard Leitner Ancaster News

A planned Sept. 24 telephone town hall to give people in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas the chance to speak to NDP candidate Alex Johnstone about federal election issues apparently got hung up over her controversial Auschwitz comments.

Voters had been invited to join “an exciting, live, uncut town hall” via automated phone messages the day before from Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

“Get all of your great questions ready for Alex and I,” Horwath said, calling the riding election “an exciting two-way race between the NDP and Conservatives.”

“We would like to hear more from you about your issues, what your vision is and how we can work together to get Canada back on track.”

The message said people only had to answer the phone between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m. to participate, offering a call-in number and entry code should that not happen.

A reporter who lives in the riding didn’t receive the promised call and tried the number and code provided several times without success.

“You have entered an invalid response,” the automated teleconference service stated when the code was entered as requested.

A call the NDP’s national campaign office at the number provided by Horwath also only offered automated options, including to make a donation or leave a message that would receive a response within three days.

Johnstone initially landed in hot water for a 2008 Facebook joke about the phallic shape of a fence post at Auschwitz, but created a far bigger furor following a Sept. 22 all-candidates meeting when she told a Hamilton Spectator columnist she didn’t know until that day that Auschwitz was an infamous Nazi death camp.

The public school trustee released a public statement via her Facebook page the same evening as the planned town hall promising to work with B’nai Brith Canada to “to raise awareness about the ever increasing need to combat racism, discrimination and anti-Semitism” regardless of the election’s outcome.

“The comments I made were clearly inappropriate and I never intended any malice in making them,” she stated.

Auschwitz flak disconnects Johnstone phone-in town hall

News Sep 25, 2015 by Richard Leitner Ancaster News

A planned Sept. 24 telephone town hall to give people in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas the chance to speak to NDP candidate Alex Johnstone about federal election issues apparently got hung up over her controversial Auschwitz comments.

Voters had been invited to join “an exciting, live, uncut town hall” via automated phone messages the day before from Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

“Get all of your great questions ready for Alex and I,” Horwath said, calling the riding election “an exciting two-way race between the NDP and Conservatives.”

“We would like to hear more from you about your issues, what your vision is and how we can work together to get Canada back on track.”

Related Content

The message said people only had to answer the phone between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m. to participate, offering a call-in number and entry code should that not happen.

A reporter who lives in the riding didn’t receive the promised call and tried the number and code provided several times without success.

“You have entered an invalid response,” the automated teleconference service stated when the code was entered as requested.

A call the NDP’s national campaign office at the number provided by Horwath also only offered automated options, including to make a donation or leave a message that would receive a response within three days.

Johnstone initially landed in hot water for a 2008 Facebook joke about the phallic shape of a fence post at Auschwitz, but created a far bigger furor following a Sept. 22 all-candidates meeting when she told a Hamilton Spectator columnist she didn’t know until that day that Auschwitz was an infamous Nazi death camp.

The public school trustee released a public statement via her Facebook page the same evening as the planned town hall promising to work with B’nai Brith Canada to “to raise awareness about the ever increasing need to combat racism, discrimination and anti-Semitism” regardless of the election’s outcome.

“The comments I made were clearly inappropriate and I never intended any malice in making them,” she stated.

Auschwitz flak disconnects Johnstone phone-in town hall

News Sep 25, 2015 by Richard Leitner Ancaster News

A planned Sept. 24 telephone town hall to give people in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas the chance to speak to NDP candidate Alex Johnstone about federal election issues apparently got hung up over her controversial Auschwitz comments.

Voters had been invited to join “an exciting, live, uncut town hall” via automated phone messages the day before from Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

“Get all of your great questions ready for Alex and I,” Horwath said, calling the riding election “an exciting two-way race between the NDP and Conservatives.”

“We would like to hear more from you about your issues, what your vision is and how we can work together to get Canada back on track.”

Related Content

The message said people only had to answer the phone between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m. to participate, offering a call-in number and entry code should that not happen.

A reporter who lives in the riding didn’t receive the promised call and tried the number and code provided several times without success.

“You have entered an invalid response,” the automated teleconference service stated when the code was entered as requested.

A call the NDP’s national campaign office at the number provided by Horwath also only offered automated options, including to make a donation or leave a message that would receive a response within three days.

Johnstone initially landed in hot water for a 2008 Facebook joke about the phallic shape of a fence post at Auschwitz, but created a far bigger furor following a Sept. 22 all-candidates meeting when she told a Hamilton Spectator columnist she didn’t know until that day that Auschwitz was an infamous Nazi death camp.

The public school trustee released a public statement via her Facebook page the same evening as the planned town hall promising to work with B’nai Brith Canada to “to raise awareness about the ever increasing need to combat racism, discrimination and anti-Semitism” regardless of the election’s outcome.

“The comments I made were clearly inappropriate and I never intended any malice in making them,” she stated.