The BC Conservative Party has expelled controversial Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie from caucus amid a deepening rift over comments she made about residential schools.
“Yesterday, MLA Dallas Brodie challenged the Conservative Party of BC caucus to fire her — including by asking Conservative MLAs to have a vote on removing her — and made the decision to walk out of the Conservative Party of BC caucus room,” party leader John Rustad said in a statement.
“As a result of her decision to publicly mock and belittle testimony from former residential school students, including by mimicking individuals recounting stories of abuses — including child sex abuse, MLA Brodie is not welcome to return to our Conservative Party of BC Caucus.”
The fracture emerged in February, when Brodie, the Conservatives’ attorney general critic, posted on social media concerns about the “apparent mistreatment” of a lawyer who called on the Law Society of BC to change the language in training material to refer to “potential” burial sites at the former residential school in Kamloops, rather than more definitive wording.
In her posts, Brodie said there are “zero” confirmed child burial sites at the school.
Rustad asked her to take the post down, saying it could be misinterpreted as questioning the wider legacy of documented harms at residential schools, including the death of at least 4,000 children, but Brodie refused.
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That drew a response from BC Conservative House Leader Áʼa꞉líya Warbus, who is Indigenous, who wrote on social media that “Questioning the narratives of people who lived and survived these atrocities, is nothing but harmful and taking us backward in reconciliation.”
The issue then exploded this week, when Brodie posted a video to social media calling out her caucus colleagues, including a “super angry” Indigenous colleague she says “joined the NDP,” to call her out.
In the video, Brodie said Rustad was “extremely wedded to this 4,000 number” regarding child deaths in residential schools. That figure was determined by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission based on federal records and testimony.
She also used a mocking voice when referring to Indigenous people’s personal stories of Institutional abuse, saying truth must be based on evidence not “his truth, her truth, oh, my grandmother’s truth.”
Warbus, who was visibly upset when asked about the video outside the legislative chamber on Thursday, said if her party can’t get on the same page on residential schools then she doesn’t know why she’s sacrificing her time to be a political representative.
In his statement on Friday, Rustad said there was no debate that horrible things happened to vulnerable children at residential schools, including pedophiles preying on children.
“I believe strongly in free speech — however, using your stature and platform as an MLA to mock testimony from victims alleging abuse, including child sex abuse, is where I draw the line,” Rustad said.
“I want to be clear — this has nothing to do with whether or not there are undiscovered remains at Kamloops Indian Residential School, where it is objectively true that no new bodies have been found.
“This is about an elected MLA using her position of authority to mock testimony of survivors of abuse, including child sex abuse.”
The Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc First Nation said in 2021 that ground penetrating radar provided “confirmation of the remains of 215 children” at the school site, but last year said the radar found “confirmation of 215 anomalies.”
The nation has not yet moved to excavate the site amid ongoing conversations with survivors. But Indigenous British Columbians say there is no question children were buried at the institution and many others in the province.
Rustad added that the party would continue to advocate that the Law Society of BC use “accurate language in training materials, and does not unduly agitate against its members.”
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