Kirk’s views antithetical to many Canadians’ core values

While it is normally considered impolite to speak ill of the dead, the Sun report on last Friday’s Charlie Kirk vigil provides an exception. (“Vigil for Charlie Kirk draws about 250,” The Brandon Sun, Sept. 20).

According to the report, Kirk was celebrated by the vigil emcee as “a thinker, a diplomat, an advocate, a builder, but most of all, a believer … in an almighty, loving God …,” and as someone who had the “courage to do the right thing.”

In fact, as even the most casual inspection of his public statements reveals, Kirk was a hate-mongering white supremacist, a demagogue who made a small fortune (roughly US$13 million) peddling outrageous pronouncements that pandered to the fears, frustrations and prejudices of his audience of disaffected youth.

Among other things, Kirk argued that: African-Americans were “better off” in 1940 than they are now; the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation and discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex and national origin in the U.S., was a “huge mistake”; affirmative action programs have facilitated the “stealing” of white people’s spots by “unqualified” minorities, particularly minority women; Martin Luther King was an “awful person”; and George Floyd was a “scumbag” whose murder by police did not merit the attention it received.