On Friday, OneBC's now former-leader Dallas Brodie "unilaterally terminated" a number of senior caucus staff members, including chief of staff Tim Thielmann and director of strategic operations Paul Ratchford.Over the following 48 hours, factions formed, frustrations fomented, and the fledgling party's internal drama spilled out onto X for all to see.Here's a timeline of how things went down.Saturday December 1312:40 - Ratchford, who still serves as OneBC Executive Director, praises Thielmann..Ratchford referred to Thielmann as "among the most brilliant minds in British Columbia politics," noting that he was always "willing to speak truth to power even when it may come at personal cost."17:00 - OneBC MLA Tara Armstrong announces that she's "lost confidence in the leadership of Dallas Brodie.".Armstrong's move came just hours after she echoed Ratchford's sentiments regarding Thielmann.21:05 - Brodie says everything's fine.."Yes, we are experiencing a little turbulence," Brodie said, "but the plane is still flying and we will be in beautiful calm skies shortly.".Sunday December 1400:03 - OneBC's board of directors ratifies as special resolution removing Brodie as leader. The document is signed by Thielmann, Ratchford, and Armstrong.."There have been multiple recent attempts by agents instructed by Ms. Brodie to obtain control of party assets without authorization, including multiple attempted breaches of security systems, communications software, and databases of the party," they claimed. "The Board has taken steps to protect membership and other sensitive data and has commenced an external investigation into the matter."9:46 - Erik Eriksen steps down as OneBC's director of outreach and declares his support for Brodie. .Up until this point, the only other staffer to publicly stand by Brodie was Wyatt Claypool, a party advisor who had been tapped to take over for Thielmann as her chief of staff. Eriksen's move caused others, including Masha Kleiner, to join the chorus of support.13:29 - Armstrong announces she will no longer be caucusing with Brodie..Armstrong said she would be informing the Speaker of her decision shortly.14:30 - Brodie holds a meet and greet in Langley, making it clear it is "not a party event.".Brodie was joined by candidates Jim McMurtry and James Davison, who hope to represent Delta-South and Abbotsford West, respectively.When asked about the board of directors' move, Brodie told the CBC, "we're still looking into the legalities of it, but I consider myself to be the leader.""I would like to move forward with OneBC and keep the whole party rolling forward," she added. "We're taking things just an hour at a time right now — this has really come as a massive surprise.".16:02 - OneBC releases a statement accusing Brodie of "increasing instability, paranoia, erratic behaviour, and abusive conduct." Thielmann is listed as the party's press secretary.."Ms. Brodie has frequently yelled at employees, used abusive language, and severed communications with senior staff and caucus for extended periods of time," the party claimed. "During the final two weeks of the BC Legislature’s fall session, Ms. Brodie had a major outburst toward staff members at OneBC caucus offices. She yelled, used abusive language, and demanded the termination of multiple employees."16:08 - Claypool refutes the claims put forth by the party, revealing that one of the employees in question was controversial communications staffer and American political operative Othman Mekhloufi..According to Claypool, Thielmann allowed Mekhloufi to "badger Dallas during a stressful day, belittling her and arguing with her over an inappropriate statement he wanted to tweet out on her account she did not want posted.""When I stepped in to tell Othman he needed to respect Dallas’ space and stop pushing on her," he continued, "Thielman became angry at me and told me to stop talking (but not Othman) because he clearly wanted the fight to happen."Claypool admitted that Brodie "raised her voice," but made it clear that she "did not yell" and was "in the right to push back on Othman and Tim for genuinely bullying her by pressuring her and badgering her constantly on days when she had already dealt with being attacked in the legislature and online, and was dealing with boatloads of emails, media, and other work."Mekhloufi's online presence has been tracked by the Canadian Influence Watchdog, which noted that his posts referenced "white nationalist politics" including the "JQ" (Jewish Question)..16:53 - Brodie releases a statement accusing Thielmann and Ratchford of having "deliberately subverted" her orders to remove Mekhloufi and secretly working with the BC Conservatives' executive team to "pass information and make deals.".Brodie claimed that after months of warning Thielmann and Ratchford about Mekhloufi, "new information" was brought to her attention last week that he has "expressed publicly, online and offline, that are absolutely incompatible with my personal and OneBC values.""Instead of removing Othman from the OneBC caucus team, which I had verbally requested 3 times by that point, Tim Thielmann decided to terminate a different member of the team for raising issues about Othman," she added. "This was a clear attempt to censor all conversation about an employee Tim Thielmann and Paul Ratchford were uniquely protective of."17:07 - Thielmann calls Brodie's claims "false and defamatory.".Thielmann suggested it was "an exhibition of extremely poor judgement for an MLA to malign multiple staff members publicly.".18:06 - Mike Harris, OneBC's candidate for Langford-Highlands, announces that he's ditching the party, saying he "didn't sign up for this soap opera."."I left the Conservative Party of BC because I could no longer accept the leadership of John Rustad," Harris explained. "Looking back, maybe I should have been more patient, and let caucus and the party executive do their work. I acted out of anger and frustration. We all do, sometimes. It's only human."He declared that he no longer believed OneBC could help defeat the BC NDP, and that as a result, he'd be resigning as a candidate and cancelling his membership "effective immediately."20:59 - Armstrong releases a statement explaining her position."After days of silence by the leader, and the sudden removal of the very people who helped build OneBC — without conversation, explanation, or accountability, I was left with a profound sense of sadness and disbelief," Armstrong said. "What followed, including an unauthorized data breach that was admitted to me in writing, placed me in an impossible position as a board member and crossed lines I cannot ignore.".22:31 - Claypool refutes Armstrong's claims, accusing her of "throwing Dallas Brodie under the bus."."I was there and you refused to let Dallas Brodie even explain the issues that were going on," he claimed. "You simply yelled at her alongside Tim and Paul and refused to listen to any staff members who could confirm Dallas’s story of what was happening. It really shows your commitment to truth ends when it’s convenient for you."He noted it was "quite something" that Armstrong's statement "doesn’t even mention Othman and his unethical behaviour," and accused her of having "supported Tim Thielman firing an employee who rightfully complained about Othman" but then getting "bent out of shape when Dallas corrected the situation and removed those who are actually causing chaos."23:55 - Eriksen asks Armstrong to release him from his non-disclosure agreement so he can tell his side of the story.."I spoke with almost everyone involved," he claimed..Monday December 1510:59 - Ratchford plays off concerns regarding Mekhloufi, labelling his controversial comments "sh*t posts."."There is a great irony in Ms. Brodie, who was cancelled and slandered by John Rustad, turning around and engaging in the cancelling of a 22-year-old staffer because of thousands of shit posts on an anonymous account," Ratchford said. "Guess what — young politicos engage in all kinds of edgy conversations that average people do not engage in. Some of which I agree with, and some of which I don't."He went on to note that Mekhloufi had "resigned his position from the party" after being fired by Thielmann at Brodie's request.Ratchford also unequivocally refuted Brodie's aforementioned claims that he and Mekhloufi had made "deals" with the BC Conservatives."This is really funny," he said. "The 'deals' are news to me; I'd love to know more detail about this."Ratchford concluded by noting that while Brodie's work in the legislature should be applauded, she has "made some MASSIVE mistakes recently and demonstrated a complete failure of leadership and professionalism."11:28 - Ratchford accuses Brodie and Kleiner of "cancelling and smearing a 22-year-old brown kid..He took issue with Kleiner's claim that Mekhloufi's views were "racist and mysoginist."11:47 - Claypool claims Mekhloufi "doesn't consider himself brown" and "literally talked about blood and soil politics and eugenics" in front of Ratchford and the team.."He had said that all Indian people (even citizens) should be deported and it seems to have never bothered you," Claypool added. "Other members of staff who had a conscience actually did find that disturbing.".14:07 - Claypool and Thielmann argue over whether Mekhloufi is a white nationalist.."Othman expressly endorsed civic nationalism — not blood and soil nationalism — both in internal chats and in the office," Thielmann claimed. "He never said, nor would he say that all Indians should be deported. Gross. Wyatt, these are egregious false aspersions, to cast so recklessly in public. It's what I might expect from deranged leftist activists. Not from you."Claypool responded by alleging that Mekhloufi "sat down and explained his appreciation for the philosophy of Julius Evola and Bronze Age Pervert to you right in front of other members of staff and was explaining how his favourite philosopher (the Bronze Age Pervert guy) is a 'true Nazi' and understands what Hitler really thought.""Dude you are either lying, delusional, or both," Claypool added. "I even stepped into the conversation because I knew about the insane people like Evola who push the idea of Hyperboreans and 'Spiritual Racism'."To be continued...
