An Edmonton business leader has now resigned from his position after he used a controversial hashtag on Twitter last week that is seen by many to devalue the Black Lives Matter movement.
While he was executive director of the Downtown Business Association, Ian O’Donnell used #ALM, an acronym for All Lives Matter, in a series of tweets that were part of a conversation on Twitter he was having with another user.
On Wednesday, the DBA said it had accepted O’Donnell’s resignation and publicly posted his letter to the board.
In his letter dated June 9, O’Donnell said he felt deep regret for the comments he made.
“I fully and completely apologize for using ‘ALM,’ a term that is associated with hate and racism,” he said. “I was wrong to use it and am sorry for the hurt that it has caused.
“I plan on educating myself more about this and other issues around injustice, unconscious bias and systemic racism.”
He added that his comment has “undone” the community-building work he has focused on in his position.
“I am disappointed that I have let others down, and I have let myself down,” O’Donnell said.
While it is not entirely clear what the conversation was centering on, O’Donnell’s tweet with the #ALM hashtag said, “Dude, I respect those who respect each other, cops or otherwise.”
O’Donnell appears to have since deleted his Twitter account.
His letter also said he had chosen to resign because he did not want the response to his tweet to affect the work of the association.
“While I committed to re-earning the trust of our community partners, that work will take time, and I would not want my personal situation to compromise the DBA’s ability to meet its mandate during the remainder of my term,” O’Donnell said.
Edmonton’s Downtown Business Association had previously said in a statement it was committed to educating O’Donnell on the issue of unconscious bias. It also said it will take action to support staff who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour, commonly referenced with the acronym BIPOC, and include more of those staff in committees and leadership roles.
On Wednesday, the DBA said it would be starting a search process to fill the executive director position.
Global News reached out to O’Donnell Wednesday but he declined to comment further.
–With files from Global News’ Phil Heidenreich
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