Premier apologizes for comments about The Progress Report's Duncan Kinney

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. (FILE)

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is apologizing for comments she made in May about the head of an independent news outlet.

Duncan Kinney of The Progress Report was charged with mischief under $5,000 in connection with an August 2021 incident that saw a Ukrainian monument in north Edmonton vandalized.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge some months back.

"On May 16, 2023, at a local candidate's forum in Brooks I responded to a question by making a point that I take questions from media outlets with differing political views and perspectives than my own," Smith said on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday evening.

"In my response, I mistakenly said that Duncan Kinney of the Progress Report had pled [sic] guilty to criminal charges arising from painting swastikas on Ukrainian monuments.

"I have since been advised that Duncan Kinney plead [sic] not guilty to his charges and that a trial has yet to occur.

"I am also advised that Duncan Kinney was not accused of painting swastikas, but is accused of defacing the statues with red paint and other words."

Smith went on to say, "I apologize to Mr. Kinney for my inaccurate description of the matter."

The monument Kinney is accused of vandalizing is a statue of Roman Shukhevych at the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in north Edmonton.

The Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy says it erected the Shukhevych statue in the 1970s to honour veterans who fought for Ukraine's independence in the Second World War.

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center has called for the statute of Shukhevych in Edmonton to be taken down, citing research of Shukhevych's collaboration with Nazi Germany and involvement in massacres of Jewish and Polish people.

In 2021, the words "Actual Nazi" were found painted in red on the statue.

Kinney wrote and published a story on The Progress Report about the defacing of the monument.