HALIFAX—A Halifax councillor and an aspiring politician are speaking out after a member of the Nova Scotia Legislature insinuated that Jamaican people are lazy during a debate over the province’s cannabis legislation.

According to a recording of Tuesday’s debate in the legislature, Progressive Conservative MLA – and candidate for the party leadership – Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin made several arguments against the legalization of cannabis.

To support one of those arguments, she used an anecdote about a conversation with a Jamaican friend to say she was worried legalized cannabis would make Nova Scotians less productive than they already are.

“I worry for the future of our province and our country. I grew up surrounded by hard-working people who were clear-minded, sober, and productive,” she said.

“I have a best friend in Amherst who is from Jamaica. She said to me, Elizabeth, smoking marijuana in Jamaica is completely accepted, and there's a completely different work ethic and very low productivity in Jamaica. I think we already have a productivity problem here in Nova Scotia. We do not need something else making it worse.”

After her comments came to light on Wednesday, Smith-McCrossin posted a statement on her Facebook page in which she said her words “were criticized as racist and insensitive.”

“I am sorry if my comments were hurtful. Had I known that this statement would have caused offense, I would never have made it,” she wrote.

That prompted a response on Twitter from Halifax Councillor Lindell Smith.

“It’s very unfortunate that we have elected officials with a serious lack of cultural understanding,” he tweeted.

“It’s even more unfortunate when they can’t even own up to the fact they lack it, and need to be educated. Can’t let this one slide.”

Asked about the tweet and Smith-McCrossin’s comments after a news conference on Thursday, Smith told StarMetro he didn’t want to speak directly about the issue.

“In general, I just think as elected officials we just need to be culturally sensitive,” he said.

“We have to own up to any mistake that we have made, and if people recognize that they are hurt by it, you’ve got to take ownership and apologize for hurting them.”

Smith-McCrossin’s statement went on to apologize for her “choice of words and any impression left that this was based on someone’s country, race or ethnicity.”

“I am certainly open to meeting individually with anyone offended by these comments to better appreciate their perspective and ensure my words are better chosen in future,” she wrote.

Quentrel Provo might take her up on that offer.

Provo announced last month that he wants to run in the next provincial election. He hasn’t picked a party yet, and Smith-McCrossin asked to speak with him back when he made the announcement.

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“It’s concerning for someone in a position like that to say something like that. And it’s unfortunate. She’s actually one of the politicians that have reached out to me once I announced that I was running. Now, I’m gonna have to take that into consideration,” Provo told StarMetro in an interview on Thursday.

Provo said he still hopes to meet with Smith-McCrossin, “because if I ignore or have some sort of hostility towards this, it’s not fixing the problem.”

He’s concerned her comments may have been referring to Black people in general.

“When you put Jamaicans in there, that changed the whole narrative of what you were saying. Because Jamaica is predominately Black, you were talking about Black people here, being less productive,” he said.

“And that’s what I want to know — what did you mean? So that’s why I said I’ll probably sit down with her, just to hear her thoughts on everything and what point of view she was trying to get across.”

Responding to comments about her first statement, Smith-McCrossin issued a second statement on Facebook on Thursday.

“Please know that my apology is without reservation or qualification; it is from the heart,” she wrote. “I recognize that I should have known the implications of what I was saying with that story. That is my mistake and I’m sorry for that.”

– With files from Madeline Lines

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