In smh news today, a Halifax politician is under fire for a short online video he posted that features him screaming "Chinese fire drill."In the cellphone video—which is filmed sideways (my dude, if you're going to be a plug at least film it well)—Councillor Matt Whitman stops a car he's driving, screams "Chinese fire drill," and gets out with two other passengers to switch spots. The video ends with Whitman in the front passenger seat.
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The whole thing is rather…. weird. Whitman has since removed the video calling it a "distraction," but still Halifax city councillor, who is also a provincial Progressive Conservative candidate, is really get hammered over it. The RCMP are investigating the video to see if any offences occurred during his little escapade and people are pretty pissed at using a racially insensitive term.Here's a cached copy of the video that landed him in hot water:So, in modern day terms, "Chinese fire drill" is a "prank" that involves people getting out of a car stopped at a red light and switching positions before the light change. The term apparently goes back to the early 1900s when some orders on a British run ship with a Chinese crew got screwed up in a translation. Since then "Chinese fire drill" has been used as a dumb term for something chaotic in nature.It's this disparaging origin that has people up in arms over the video. Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard, who was appointed to the Upper House by Justin Trudeau last year, told Global news that the word is concerning to her."A concern that I have about the term is the racist origin and hence racist overtones," she said.Whitman, himself, hasn't really addressed the video other than telling Global that he wants to move forward from it and continue to do his work as a public official."This past Sunday I decided to remove the video after seeing the distraction it became," he told Global via text message. "I look forward to continuing to meet with constituents in Hammonds Plains-Lucasville to talk about the issues that matter to them."Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.