City, downtown business association call out comments made after tree announcement
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The city and the Edmonton Downtown Business Association (EDBA) issued a joint statement on Sunday calling out racist comments made about Edmonton’s mayor and EDBA staff in the wake of the announcement of the city’s holiday plans.
The city and the Edmonton Downtown Business Association (EDBA) issued a joint statement on Sunday calling out racist comments made about Edmonton’s mayor and EDBA staff in the wake of the announcement of the city’s holiday plans.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the EDBA would be moving its annual Downtown Holiday Light Up to Rice Howard Way.
The same day, the city announced that there would be no big Christmas tree at Churchill Square this year, but that there would still be other festive activities.
“We are charting a new path. In retrospect, we should have communicated these activities better, and we apologize that some people were led to believe that Churchill Square would not be a festive place,” the statement says. “However, that oversight did not justify some of the activities which followed. A small number of people are using this situation to make racist attacks on the staff of the Edmonton Downtown Business Association and the Mayor. Those actions do not reflect the views of either the vast majority of Edmontonians or the organizations we lead. They are inappropriate. We do not tolerate online hate and bullying, and we will not be swayed by such behaviour.”
The statement also says the decisions were not made by city council or the mayor.
