UCP Nomination Candidate Won’t Confirm or Deny Ranting About ‘Chinese’ Voters in This Secret Recording
UCP nomination candidate Paul Frank: “If that is a recording of me,” it “would have been secretly recorded without my consent”
UCP nomination candidate Paul Frank can neither confirm nor deny that the voice apparently ranting about “Chinese” voters in an audio recording is his own.
But if that is a recording of his voice, the aspiring UCP candidate for Calgary-North suggests it “would have been secretly recorded without my consent.”
An audio recording uploaded anonymously to YouTube this summer purportedly shows Frank complaining that the local Chinese-Canadian community stacked a nomination meeting to acclaim former PC MLA Jason Luan as the UCP candidate in Calgary-Foothills.
Luan’s lone challenger for the riding, currently held by UCP MLA Prasad Panda, was a UCP staffer and former political assistant to Stephen Harper named Connor Staus.
In a statement to PressProgress, Frank said he is aware of the audio clip but could neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the recording.
“If that is a recording of me,” Frank told PressProgress, “it is illegal, inaccurate, edited and spliced and would have been secretly recorded without my consent.”
“Take notice that any reproduction, distribution, comment on or utilization of that recording, or relating to that recording, is defamatory.”
E-mail from Paul Frank to PressProgress (Sept. 26, 2018)
According to the audio clip and transcript that was uploaded to YouTube, the voice allegedly belonging to Frank says “I’d like to see Jason (Luan) go,” adding “he was there, he prepared all Chinese to go for the board.”
A second unnamed voice asks: “why does it matter if they’re Chinese?”
“I’m not making it cultural, but…” Frank’s alleged voice replies, although the recording becomes inaudible before the sentence is completed.
“I know they’re a very active community,” the voice adds.“They had room for 50 people. Room for 50, and 200 show up.”
It is unclear from the recording who participated in the conversation or when and where the recording took place. Although Frank does not deny the voice is his own, he would not clarify any context behind the words attributed to him.
PressProgress also reached out to the anonymous YouTube account that uploaded the video but received no response.
The YouTube account that first surfaced the audio clip also directs viewers to a video of a controversial UCP nomination meeting earlier this summer.
That video, which allegedly revealed UCP officials stuffing ballot boxes to rig a nomination meeting in Calgary-Greenway, led to the resignation of former UCP deputy whip Prab Gil – the same video shows Frank’s presence behind-the-scenes as a shouting match erupts in the hallway outside the meeting.
The UCP launched a misconduct investigation, but refused to release the findings.
Frank currently serves as president of Conservative MP Michelle Rempel’s constituency association and has received her endorsement for the upcoming nomination in his riding.
I am honoured and excited to announce MP @MichelleRempel‘s endorsement and support for my #UCP nomination in #yycnorth #AbLeg #abpoli @Alberta_UCP @UCPCaucus pic.twitter.com/tkK61vtcWS
— Vote Paul Frank (@votePaulFrank) May 15, 2018
Our journalism is powered by readers like you.
We’re an award-winning non-profit news organization that covers topics like social and economic inequality, big business and labour, and right-wing extremism.
Help us build so we can bring to light stories that don’t get the attention they deserve from Canada’s big corporate media outlets.
Donate
