Incumbent candidate for Calgary City council Ward Sutherland draws criticism for comments he made at a public forum in which he refers to a “Johnny Jew from New York” as a hypothetical artist hired under the city’s public art policy.
“And as I dove into the weeds, I found that one of the biggest issues was the fact that the committee that was picking the art, first of all, 10 out of the 10 people were artists. And when they were looking at it, they were going, ‘Well, Johnny Jew from New York, he’s the best artist, so we’re going to use him and not even look at it.’ So we tried to have the policy changed.”
Upon being called out for the ‘Johnny Jew’ reference he said,”During our discussion about public art at the forum I referenced a famous New York designer with the last name of Choo.”
Asked why he would refer specifically to Choo, a Malaysian-born fashion designer based in the United Kingdom whose first name isn’t Johnny but Jimmy, Sutherland said he mixed things up in the heat of the moment.
Sutherland’s stands by his Johnny Choo from New York comment but it’s arguable that in his mind and from previous behaviour he was making a knife-twisting gesture towards Johnny Jew from New York.
(May 8/2017 Councillor Ward Sutherland ‘s back-stabbing hand gesture in the direction of a female colleague prompted her to change seats and a fellow councillor to file a complaint to the integrity commissioner. Coun. Ward Sutherland made the gesture during a public hearing, extending his arm and appearing to repeatedly make a knife-twisting motion with his hand toward Coun. Druh Farrell as she was speaking, her back turned to him.)
