VANCOUVER — The BC NDP caucus has accused interim BC Conservative Leader Trevor Halford of promoting a “racist website” by praising the Western Standard while remaining silent on the specific article that prompted his praise.
In a media release issued Friday, NDP MLA Rohini Arora criticized Halford after he described the Western Standard as “independent journalism at its best” and said “B.C. needs more of it.”
Halford's comments followed the story being raised in BC's Legislative Assembly during an exchange between BC Conservative MLA Kiel Giddens and NDP Energy Minister Adrian Dix, with a visibly flustered Dix also naming the Western Standard.
Yet the NDP release was notably silent on the Western Standard’s recent exclusive, based on freedom-of-information documents, which revealed the Eby government’s internal efforts to secretly undermine and build a counter-case against a proposed northern pipeline project to the B.C. coast — even as Premier David Eby publicly dismissed the project as “fictional.”
Instead, the NDP release focused on other Western Standard content, including a column titled “RETURN TO SENDER” that argued against further a 60 million Indian immigration claim. The column referred to Tim Hortons as “Singh Horton’s” and suggested the workers could be easily identified in “minimum-wage jobs that teenagers used to do.”
Notably, Eby himself has criticized the temporary foreign worker program responsible for such placements, describing it as “exploitative” in recent weeks.
Arora, herself no stranger to controversy, seized on the opportunity to attack the Western Standard.
“This website has published many racist articles and directly attacked the character of Canadians of Indian ancestry,” Arora said. “It’s shocking to see the B.C. Conservatives using their profile to promote a racist website that wants to mass deport millions of Canadians based on their ethnicity.”
Arora added: “At a time when we’re seeing more racist violence and hate crimes, the Western Standard is fanning the flames. It’s so disappointing that the B.C. Conservatives are pandering to racists for votes without regard for the serious consequences to people.”
Arora herself was at the centre of online controversy only two weeks ago when she was accused of sexually harassing Wyatt Claypool, a OneBC staffer, online by calling him "repressed" and accusing him of wanting a "woman like (her) so bad."
The Western Standard reached out to both Arora and Wyatt Claypool, the OneBC staffer referred to by Arora, for comment.
“Rohini Arora’s comment was bizarre and really inappropriate for anyone to have made, let alone a sitting MLA who is also the deputy chair for the BC NDP caucus,” Claypool responded.
“I am a fan of open dialogue on social media with elected officials since it not only increases knowledge in policy discussions, but it sometimes helps reveal what these MLAs are truly like as people, for better or for worse,” Claypool added.
Arora did not respond.