'Fire them,' say protesters of 2 Yukon Party MLAs caught in text scandal

A message from some Yukoners today: "Fire them!"

This, in reference to two MLAs who were part of a vulgar text chat about some of their political opponentsthat went public last week.

The Yukon Party has said the MLAs will attend anti-bullying training but remain in caucus.

Today a few dozen protesters in Yukon, both in Whitehorseand in Dawson City, said that is not enough.

Mary Holozubiecwas at the protest in Whitehorse, which was called End Transphobia and Sexism in the Yukon Legislative Assembly. Sheheld a sign that said, "Ivoted Yukon Party. Not next time."

"I feel like letting these MLAs work for full pay without doing their full job is not acceptable punishment," Holozubiec said. "It condones the texts that were sent."

Grey Capot-Blanc spokeas part of a new group called Northern Voices Rising. They said the MLAs' comments were offensive and deserved greater censure.

"I don'twant people to see what they said to be normal. Having homophobic and transphobic remarks normalized is not good," Capot-Blanc said.

Sean Ladue also attended today's protest. He'san activist and advocate for LGBTQ2S+ people in the territory who spoke this year at the raising of the Progress Price flagbefore the legislative assembly.

"The people are coming together to show support for those who have been maligned by the MLAsignorant text messages," he said."Those texts are indicative of their thought processes, which are uncalled for at this time."

Vanessa Thorson was also in attendance.

"I think it's somehow the notion that your masculinity or femininity are defined by whether you have power, and your genitalia is a determinant of that," she said."It's just so crude and disrespectful."