N.B. politician says colleagues need sensitivity training

A member of the New Brunswick legislature who claims to be the target of racial slurs wants the province to send civil servants and politicians for cultural sensitivity training.

TJ Burke, the first aboriginal to sit in the provincial legislature, says other elected officials have often called him Tonto or teepee inside the legislature, but he refuses to name these individuals.

New Brunswick's Premier Bernard Lord says he's never heard derogatory comments made about Burke's aboriginal heritage. He believes Burke, a Liberal, is needlessly painting himself as a victim.

The province's aboriginal affairs minister, Brad Green, took a tougher stand on the issue saying race-related insults and jokes won't be tolerated in the legislature.

"I think it is completely unacceptable for any comment, insult or joke to be racially motivated, and if my colleague, the MLA from Fredericton North, TJ Burke, is experiencing comments like that, I think it is appropriate for he and I to work together on a project of awareness, or cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity," Green said.

Burke says a member of the legislature once told him that the book he was reading wasn't any good because "they didn't kill enough Indians."