BC Conservatives Oust MLA Over Comments on Residential Schools; 2 More MLAs Leave in Solidarity

BC MLA Dallas Brodie in Vancouver on Oct. 15, 2024. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

B.C. Conservatives have ousted MLA Dallas Brodie from caucus over comments she made about residential schools, while two other MLAs are leaving in solidarity with Brodie, with one saying he will form a new party.

Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad said Brodie is being removed from caucus for using a “mocking, child-like voice” when talking about “testimony from former residential school students” during a podcast interview, and after walking out of a caucus meeting about the issue on March 6.

“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 sexual abuse, MLA Brodie is not welcome to return to our Conservative Party of BC caucus,” Rustad said in a statement on March 6.

During the podcast interview posted on March 3, Brodie talked about the need to establish the truth when it comes to residential schools.

“I do know that if we don’t have truth—not his truth, her truth, oh, my grandmother’s truth—you know, this whole thing about,” she said, before changing her tone to a mocking one, adding, “my truth, your truth, oh, my truth,” then changing her voice back to normal, saying, “this stuff has to stop. It’s like, it’s got to be the truth.”

Rustad said Brodie, who represents the Vancouver-Quilchena riding, had “challenged” the party to fire her by asking for a vote on her removal.

“I believe strongly in free speech – however, using your stature and platform as an MLA to mock testimony from victims alleging abuse, is where I draw the line,” he said.

Interview

In the podcast interview hosted by Frances Widdowson, a former professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, Brodie talked about the backlash she received after posting comments about the case of a lawyer challenging the BC Law Society over its residential school training materials.

Brodie has been critical of claims of mass grave-sites of children being found at residential school sites, saying there is no evidence confirming the reports.

“The number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero,” she said in a Feb. 22 post on the X platform, adding, “No one should be afraid of the truth.”

In May 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nations said it had found the remains of 215 children at a residential school site in Kamloops using ground penetrating radar.

In a March 4 letter to the BC Law Society, Brodie, who was her party’s attorney general critic, asked for changes to materials used in its mandatory indigenous course for lawyers, which included content on the residential school site. Brodie said the Kamloops residential schools findings were anomalies and not confirmed grave sites.

In her podcast interview, she said Rustad asked her to take down the post because “people are upset.”

She said at the end she decided not to take the post down, and has received many hateful messages in response. “It’s not easy being called these names,” she said, adding that she was willing to “take a hit.”

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad speaks to reporters following the throne speech at the legislature in Victoria, on Feb. 18, 2025. The Canadian Press/Chad Hipolito

She also spoke on the podcast about fellow Conservative MLA and House Leader A'aliyah Warbus, a member of the Sto:lo Nation, saying she was “super angry,” joining the NDP in criticizing Brodie.

Warbus has urged support for former residential school students.

“Inform yourself, get the latest facts, research AND talk to survivors. Questioning the narratives of people who lived and survived these atrocities, is nothing but harmful and taking us backward in reconciliation,” Warbus wrote in a Feb. 24 post.

In a March 7 post on the X platform, Brodie said that she “spoke the truth because it matters. I will never back down from it.”

She continued, “It is an indisputable fact that the number of bodies discovered at Kamloops is zero.”

“The truth is a threat to powerful vested interests in the multi-billion-dollar reconciliation industry,” she said.

Responding to her post on X on March 7, Rustad shared the segment of the podcast interview where Brodie uses a mocking voice, saying, “Correct Dallas — the number of new bodies unearthed at Kamloops is zero.”

“However, your departure from caucus was based on your choice to go on a podcast & mock victims of molestation & abuse from Residential Schools telling their stories/truths as you put it,” Rustad said.

In the podcast interview, Brodie said she is receiving support from within her party.

“I will tell you that there are probably ... close to 20 people who have been spoken to me separately.”

MLAs Leave

Shortly after Brodie was ousted from the party on March 7, fellow Conservative MLAs Jordan Kealy and Tara Armstrong announced they will leave the party in solidarity with Brodie.

“The party has created an environment where some so-called ‘Conservatives’ would rather throw cheap insults than deal with facts. There were no apologies, no accountability, and I refused to stand with those who either enabled or ignored that kind of behavior,” Kealy said on social media.

He said he will form a new party, noting that parties can obtain official status with two members.

Armstrong also said she is leaving because Conservative MLAs were elected to stand up “for what is right, no matter the cost.”

“Our businesses are being strangled by taxes, tariffs, and hostile interests within the reconciliation industry,” Armstrong said. “We have never needed courage and truth more than we do today.”