Via Kamloops This Week.
A Kamloops councillor has issued a public apology for falsely accusing Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson of making a joke about flatulence at a recent business association dinner.
At Tuesday’s (June 27) council meeting, Coun. Stephen Karpuk put Hamer-Jackson on blast, accusing him of making an inappropriate joke about farting at a June 14 dinner meeting of the Central Interior chapter of the Canadian Home Builders Association Central Interior (CHBA-CI).
Karpuk claimed the mayor suggested people fart more to produce more green energy during a question-and-answer session at the dinner.
“[I was] embarrassed at the end when the mayor asked whether we should pass gas as a way to generate more green energy,” Karpuk said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “The groans in front of 230 people were embarrassing to me. Not thrilled about, ‘Do you want me to fart more?’ Really disgusting.”
In response, Hamer-Jackson denied making any such quip, telling Karpuk his accusation was “dead wrong.”
Karpuk replied: “No, it’s not dead wrong, it’s dead on the mark. Everyone at my table heard it, too.”
After the council meeting, Hamer-Jackson told reporters he recalled making a comment about beef at the CHBA-CI dinner, but not a comment about farting.
“The only thing I said about beef is when they talk about renewable fuels and using cattle for fuel, I said ‘Well, we better start eating more beef because the more cows we have, the more fuel we’re going to have,’” Hamer-Jackson said, noting his comment was in regards to a process of using methane gas from cattle as energy.
Within hours of the meeting, however, the mayor was cleared of the cheese-cutting claims.
Hamer-Jackson called KTW to clarify that CHBA-CI president Tom Calne had informed him that Calne, nor the mayor, was the one who made the joke about flatulence at the June 14 dinner meeting.
As a result, Karpuk has retracted his accusation and told KTW that he had been mistaken in his accusation of the mayor, explaining that CHBA-CI executive officer Rose Choi, who was sitting at the mayor’s table at the dinner, clarified to him it wasn’t the mayor who made the joke.
“It was someone sitting beside the mayor,” Karpuk told KTW. “I had my back turned to the mayor and was told it was the mayor by people beside me.”
Karpuk has apologized for “any harms his accusations may have caused” Hamer-Jackson and his family.
“I acted emotionally instead of rationally,” Karpuk said in his lengthy public apology. “I am truly sorry for this. I ask for forgiveness for my mistakes.”
– By Michael Potestio
