Chilliwack mayor's radio show cancelled over use of 'R-word' on air to describe U.S. complaints about wildfire smoke
'When we judge that someone else has done something offensive or immoral, we have to be very careful'
The first rule of Cancel Club is there’s no such thing as Cancel Club.
(But there is.)
I’d like to welcome Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove as the newest member of the club after his weekly radio show was cancelled because of a complaint about his use of the ‘R-word’ on air last Thursday.
He was not referring to a particular person nor was he discussing anyone in the disability community, rather it was an offhand slip of the tongue akin to dropping an ‘F-bomb’ in front of children.
I did not hear the segment in question, which is his regular Thursday morning show on the Pattison Media station 89.5 JRFM entitled “Ask the Mayor.” Unless something has changed in the last 12 hours, it won't be on this morning.
The woman who complained to city hall and the radio station told me she wasn’t listening closely enough to quote him, but apparently he was discussing how some people in the U.S. are complaining about smoke from Canadian wildfires, “which he felt was r****,” she wrote via email.
Pam McCaughan posted about the incident on July 10 in the Facebook group “Inclusion Chilliwack” – from which I personally have been banned for some reason. Exclusion Chilliwack?
She and a small number of people who are advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities discussed the. mayor's use of the word and McCaughan sent a letter to city hall.
“I was taken aback when he described the responses from the U.S. regarding the wildfire smoke as ‘retarded,’” McCaughan wrote in the email she sent to city hall that she shared with me. “Hearing this term used so casually — especially by a community leader — was deeply disheartening.”
The term has long been considered an ableist slur, a holdover from a time before “intellectual and developmental disability” replaced “mental retardation” as the appropriate term, according to an explanation from the American National Down Syndrom Society (NDSS).
“NDSS strongly condemns the use of the word ‘retarded’ in any derogatory context. Using this word is hurtful and suggests that people with disabilities are not competent.”
The word is sometimes also used colloquially and casually as a slur in a way that’s more akin to other profanities.
McCaughan explained to the mayor that the word is outdated and offensive to many people.
“It reinforces harmful stereotypes and has no place in respectful, public discourse,” she wrote. “I would hope that someone in a leadership position would model inclusive and thoughtful language, especially when speaking on a community radio station.”
She urged the mayor and others in positions of influence to be more mindful of word choice and to lead with empathy and respect.
For his part, Popove agreed in a personal response to her four days later, on Monday, July 14. His response in full:
“Thank you for your email. I appreciate you writing in and expressing your concerns. You are absolutely correct. That is an offensive term, and I shouldn’t have used it. I apologize for what I said and will be more mindful of the words I use in the future. I am passionate about our community and sensitive to how wildfires affect those at home; however, my passion does not excuse my use of an offensive term.”
McCaughan then updated the folks on Inclusion Chiliwack to say she received “what seemed like a cookie cutter apology,” adding that she followed up suggesting he publicly apologize.
She also complained to JR FM program director Russell James who agreed the word had no place on the airwaves, and followed up with her to say that the mayor’s show is cancelled.
“That is wonderful news!!!!” one commenter replied.
There goes the simple way for Popove to apologize: This morning on the air and we could all move on and folks could continue to engage with the mayor about local government and “Ask the Mayor.”
Popove declined to comment on the situation further to me, and James did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Barry did it too
The situation is reminiscent of the backlash against former school trustee Barry Neufeld when he referred to me, another reporter, and the newspaper’s publisher with the same word on social media.
Neufeld targeted us in a public Facebook post on Nov. 19, 2020 calling us “the three retards,” which he later replaced with “radical lefties” before deleting it altogether. Because of his other disgraceful statements long before that, he was excoriated in the media, including TV channels from Vancouver who came out to knock on his mobile home door to get him to comment.
Neufeld wasn’t particularly “cancelled” by using the term, but only because as with someone like Donald Trump, it’s impossible to even keep track of the stupid, hateful, ignorant things he said over the years.
The Chilliwack Teachers Association and Education Minister Rob Fleming came out in support of us and the latter calling for him to resign.
Mayor Ken Popove is not Barry Neufeld. Neufeld uses slurs and innaccurate bigotry all the time. Popove does not, so his use of the word “retard” was a slip of the tongue at best, frat boy dumb at worst.
Words are powerful. Meanings change. Usage evolves. And people make mistakes.
Can we all get over ourselves a little bit and stop sitting in the bushes of private Facebook groups waiting to pounce on public figures who say something that offends us?
I was the victim of cancel culture in a more serious way than Neufeld or Popove, and that was for saying something that was 100 per cent true but hurt someone's feelings. Incidentally, my employer did not admit any liability but they did settle a lawsuit and a BC Human Rights complaint I filed against them.
As comedian Ricky Gervais puts it: “Just because you are offended doesn’t mean you are right.”
Cancel culture is dangerous
There is a growing far-left activist culture of virtue-signalling, a war of words aiming to bring down anyone who says any word any particular person doesn’t like at any particular time.
Whether it’s pronoun usage or innaccurate terminology to describe an ethnic group or politically incorrect positions on international politics on university campuses, conversation in 2025 is fraught. Anyone who has anything to lose is walking on thin ice whenever they open their mouths.
Cancel culture is nothing new, it’s a term used to describe punishing, shaming, terminating or otherwise lessening a person who says words that violate some moral standards.
In an article in Creating Common Ground magazine, psychology professor and PhD holder Michael Mascolo writes that cancel culture is rooted in a crude theory of character that suggest people have an “essential moral nature” so what we do and say is a reflection of that essential nature.
“And so, when a person says something that is regarded as offensive, that person can be seen as having bad character.
“And if that person has a bad or immoral character, they can and should be cancelled.”
Of course this is nonsense. While we might strive to act morally and with a strong character, we don’t have an essential moral being.
“We never live up to the ideals we set for ourselves. We make mistakes. We are always evolving.”
And cancel culture is rooted in a profound lack of humility, he says. When we judge others for using language or saying things we don’t like, what standards are we using to judge them? Hence the virtue signalling and the holier-than-thou language from some members of traditionally maligned and vulnerable groups when they hear something they don’t like and gather the digital pitchforks.
“When we judge that someone else is done something offensive or immoral, we have to be very careful,” Mascolo writes. “Humility calls on us to raise the possibility that our judgments might actually be wrong. When we have humility, we don’t abandon our moral beliefs; but we do reflect on them and question them.”
As for the use of the R-word specifically, advocate and candidate in the recent school board byelection Katie Bartel commented on my post about this topic just yesterday.
I had asked publicly if anyone knew what the context was for Popove’s comments. She responded that context didn’t matter, the word is offensive, demeaning and wrong. I pushed back suggesting that we are policing language so strictly now that not only are we not allowed to make mistakes with inaccurate terms or wrong pronouns, we aren’t even allowed to talk about the subject at all without being accused of being anti-this or bigoted against that.
She pointed out, interestingly, that she has been asked in various ways, “Why can’t we say the R-word anymore?” She said that sometimes the question comes from genuine curiosity, and she appreciates the opportunity to explain, but other times she is defensive because the question is from conservatives wrapped in “entitlement or judgment,” as if she is overstepping by asking for basic respect.
“I do think we need to foster a culture that’s more open to questions. But those questions need to come from a place of authentic curiosity, not superiority or defensiveness.”
Good point. That makes sense to me and I’ve seen that patronizing “why don’t you get over yourselves” rhetorical style of questioning from some conservatives who refuse to accept progress and changes in language or beliefs.
Bartel also said that my suggestion that “context is everything” can open up the door to justification, which I certainly accept. We can communicate without repeating slurs, and the only reason I repeated the word at all above is because the NDSS did so and for the sake of accuracy and clarity in journalism.
“It comes down to relationships,” Bartel said to me. “We have to do the hard work of listening, understanding, and breaking the cycles that keep us divided.”
I couldn’t agree more. Cancelling a harmless radio show hosted by a city mayor connecting with constituents because he once used an offensive term in an offhand way is not listening or understanding or breaking any cycles.
It’s bullying, head-in-the-sand cancel culture.
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Paul J. Henderson
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