WATCH ABOVE: Video shows Green Party leader Elizabeth May awkwardly welcoming Omar Khadr back to Canada at Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner May 9.
TORONTO – Green Party leader Elizabeth May used some off-colour language during a speech at the Parliamentary Press Gallery’s dinner in Ottawa Saturday night.
The annual event that brings together politicians and journalists is usually marked by self-deprecating humour where party leaders poke fun at themselves.
However, May ended her speech by proclaiming her support for Omar Khadr, who was freed on bail in Edmonton last week, by dropping a F-bomb.
“Welcome back, Omar Khadr. It matters to say it. Welcome back, Omar Khadr. You’re home,” said May in a video that has been posted to YouTube.
“Omar Khadr, you’ve got more class than the whole f—-ing cabinet,” she said, referring to the Conservative party, before being escorted off the stage by Transport Minister Lisa Raitt.
WATCH: Elizabeth May blamed her lack of sleep for comments she made during the press gallery dinner.
Global’s Mike Le Couteur, who co-hosted the event with Marie Vastel of Le Devoir, said many people in the audience were uncomfortable during the speech.
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“Many people came up to me at the after the speech asking if it was part of the show and I can say it was not at all part of the show,” said Le Couteur. “I think most people got quite uncomfortable when she started talking about Freud and male body parts (in reference to the fact that she’s the only female federal leader). There were a lot of people looking at each other asking if it was for real or not, but it soon became apparent there was no punchline.”
In an interview Sunday with the Canadian Press, May apologized for her use of language and humour that she said “didn’t work.”
“I wouldn’t want anyone to think I was less than respectful for the people with whom I work,” May told the CP. “I apologize that I made an attempt to be funny and edgy….and it didn’t work.”
“My funny speech wasn’t funny. That’s not the first time a politician has done that,” she said.
Khadr is a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner and was released on bail Thursday despite attempts by the federal government to keep him jail.
WATCH BELOW: Elizabeth May’s speech at the press gallery dinner was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Minna Rhee takes a look at how to intervene.
Khadr, now 28-years-old, pleaded guilty in October 2010 before a discredited military commission to war crimes, including murder in the death of U.S. special forces soldier Christopher James Speer. He spent nearly 13 years behind bars before being released.
Other leaders also appeared at the dinner, including NDP leader Tom Mulcair who was interviewed by This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Mark Critch, who was dressed up as Mulcair.
And in Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s speech, he compared himself to Pierre Karl Peladeau, the former Qubecor CEO turned Quebec politician, as a wealthy kid with a famous dad who wanted to lead the country.
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