Saskatchewan Party candidate, with Scott Moe looking on, apologizes for racial slur

A Saskatchewan Party candidate has repeated his apology for saying a racial slur a year ago, this time in person and with party leader Scott Moe.

“Very dumb mistake. One word and it can change your life,” David Buckingham told reporters Wednesday at an unrelated party announcement in Saskatoon.

“To the people involved, I offer my apology again. I wish I could bring it back. Unfortunately, I can’t.”

Moe said the Saskatchewan Party followed its policies after the slur was made, as Buckingham apologized and took sensitivity training.

“We very much strive to be a diverse and inclusive party, very much with the policies that we have enacted with the honour of forming government over the last decade and a half,” Moe said.

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NDP Leader Carla Beck, asked by reporters about the apology, said Moe, in his role as leader, needs to be accountable for what goes on in his caucus.

“These are really shocking things for anyone to be saying,” Beck told reporters in Saskatoon.

“It’s not something that most people would stand for. We’re in the middle of an election. People in (Saskatoon) Westview will have the opportunity to register what they think about the actions and the apology.”

Buckingham is seeking a third term in the legislature in the Oct. 28 election.

He was first elected in the constituency of Saskatoon Westview in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020. He has also served as the Saskatchewan Party government caucus chair.

Buckingham apologized in a public statement Tuesday, shortly after former caucus colleague Randy Weekes told reporters about the slur.

Weekes said a caucus staff member told him she overheard Buckingham use a racial slur referencing a Black person.

Weekes, who was Speaker during the last legislative sitting, said the woman, who is Black, was traumatized and reported Buckingham to human resources.

She later quit, Weekes said.

Weekes is not running in the upcoming election. He lost the Saskatchewan Party nomination for his constituency of Kindersley-Biggar last year.

He later quit the party after accusing those in the governing caucus of bullying him.