Fredericton — It caused a major stir online when Empire actor Jussie Smollett claimed to have been attacked by two men in Chicago earlier this month. However, as the story was further investigated, a controversy soon developed after the truth about the incident was fully revealed.
The attack was planned and paid for by New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs — on the taxpayers’ dime.
The incident cost New Brunswick taxpayers a total of $3,500. Higgs apologized for the misappropriation of funds, but claimed that the attack was not racially motivated.
“I can assure you it wasn’t a race thing,” Higgs asserted. “I don’t see colour. What is he? Chinese? I don’t even know.”
Higgs maintains that the reason he incited the violence against the television actor had nothing to do with his race, sexual orientation, or even his well-publicized left-leaning ideology. Instead, he cited the fact that Empire reruns recently usurped the timeslot for the back-to-back Golden Girls reruns that used to air daily on TBS.
“For years I came home from a hard day’s work to wind down with my daily dose of Dorothy,” said Higgs, bitterly. “Instead, I turn on the TV, and what do I see? All this hippity-hop claptrap.”
Naturally, this controversy could have been avoided had the premier simply watched the show on a streaming service. Unfortunately Higgs, 83, finds Amazon Prime “difficult to navigate,” and its content “a bunch of crap.”
Higgs assured his constituents that, in the future, if he again feels the need to have an actor — or anyone else — roughed up, he will pay out-of-pocket.