Alberta minister of arts, culture and Status of Women apologizes for using expletive

EDMONTON – Alberta’s minister of arts, culture and Status of Women has apologized for using an expletive in a voice message she left for a constituent.

Tanya Fir, the United Conservative Party legislature member for the Calgary-Peigan riding, says the fact that she has been referred to by the same expletive in political disagreements and in recent messages to her office, doesn’t make her use of the word OK.

“It was inappropriate,” Fir told reporters at the legislature on Monday.

“It was a flippant comment.”

She said the constituent involved has accepted her apology.

Fir used the foul language in a voice mail recording that Alberta columnist Doug Firby released over the weekend.

The message begins with Fir confirming to a constituent that she has received their feedback regarding the provincewide teachers strike, which ended last month after the government invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to shield a bill ordering teachers back to work.

“I will be sharing it accordingly at the caucus and cabinet tables,” Fir tells the constituent about the feedback 

“So thank you for reaching out and sharing your views on the matter. I appreciate it. Bye for now.”

Fir then seemingly hangs up the phone.

But the recording continues.

“Was that OK?” she is heard asking someone else.

Fir and the other person continue talking to one another before Fir refers to the next constituent she has to call as the expletive.

The other person laughs.

Firby, in an interview Monday, said a fellow constituent who received the message last Tuesday sent the recording to him.

The constituent reached out to Firby because it seemed in the recording that Firby was the next person Fir was planning to call. Fir had read out Firby’s number after using the expletive in the recording.

Firby said he immediately felt a flash of anger and annoyance when he heard the MLA use the expletive.

“I was shocked and I thought it was aimed at me,” he said.

“It was like being a fly on the wall. You’ve actually heard something that you would never normally hear.”

Firby said he then reached out to Fir to get her perspective.

In his conversation with Fir, Firby said the minister apologized profusely and admitted she had made a mistake.

She explained that she used an expletive that she had been referred to in several messages she had received recently. 

On Monday, she said those messages were from people criticizing the government’s use of the notwithstanding clause.

Firby said he then asked Fir to play him the messages.

“It kind of opened my eyes when I heard the messages,” Firby said.

“I know that a lot officials are subject to verbal abuse, but the tenor and the tone of those messages was absolutely horrific. I mean, terrible swear words, people shouting, threatening tones.”

Lori Williams, a political science professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, said she understands the frustration Fir might have been feeling in the recording.

“She’s receiving this vitriol in call after call after call. We have a better understanding of the strain she’s under,” Williams said in a phone interview Monday.

She said the expletive and Fir’s ensuing apology provide two excellent lessons.

The first is that the provincial government needs to take seriously the criticism it’s receiving for its use of the notwithstanding clause, she said.

The second lesson is that no matter how frustrated people are, all parties need to remain civil.

“Those who are upset about the use of the notwithstanding clause absolutely should contact their MLA, but do so in a respectful and civil way,” she said.

“It’s important that we understand that anyone in the public eye is a target for this kind of vitriol and we all need to try to stand up against it and be better.”

She said she teaches a course about women in politics and her research has shown women, like Fir, and members of the LGBTQ+ and racialized communities are subjected to the most amount of vitriol.

“This is a really unfortunate incident,” Williams said.

“But it’s also an opportunity to question and challenge vitriol.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2025.