Parker apologizes at council for ICE post
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Brandon Coun. Glen Parker formally apologized on Friday for comments he made in reference to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a post on the East End Community Centre Facebook page earlier this week.
“I just want to offer an apology to the community as a whole,” Parker (Ward 9) said in council chambers at the start of budget deliberations.
“Probably more specifically, the immigrant community and the newer Canadians.”
Brandon Ward 9 Coun. Glen Parker listens to discussion around the council table during the first day of two full-day budget deliberations at city hall on Friday afternoon. Parker formally apologized at the start of the meeting for comments he made earlier this week on Facebook about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). (Matt Goerzen/The Brandon Sun)
On Tuesday, Parker, a volunteer board member at the community centre and the city’s deputy mayor, posted a photo on Facebook of three people with their faces partially covered and the caption: “ICE Agents spotted at East End CC today.”
Parker took the post down within 30 minutes, after multiple people said the post was inappropriate, and apologized online.
On Friday at council, he said: “I offer the apology for comments that I made in written form on a Facebook post — for an organization that I love, meant to shine a light on good things that many of those folks do across the city — came across wrong.
“And for that, I sincerely apologize to all those people that I offended with that.”
Parker, while choking up, also apologized to the rest of council for the distraction during budget time, and to his family in Minnesota and in Brandon.
“I assure you that I have learned from that and that I’ll gladly move on,” he said.
The Facebook post came after a crackdown on immigration by U.S. President Donald Trump, which saw more than 2,000 ICE agents in Minnesota, according to The Associated Press.
ICE agents have killed two American citizens in Minneapolis over the last month, sparking protests across the U.S.
» alambert@brandonsun.com