John Rustad has accused Dallas Brodie, Tara Armstrong and their staff — who recently launched a new party, OneBC — of "blackmailing" BC Conservative MLAs and staff in an attempt to "divide" their former party.He deemed their behaviour "extremely unethical, abusive, and potentially criminal."In a letter to caucus obtained by the Western Standard and authenticated by the leader himself, Rustad explained that the duo and their team were "attempting to blackmail individuals into taking jobs or contracts with them while simultaneously attempting to force them to do or say certain things in order to prevent blackmail materials from being leaked.""We are now aware," he added, "that when they were part of our caucus, the [OneBC] MLAs secretly recorded party and caucus employees (as well as potentially their colleagues and others) on phone calls," and took pictures of private text messages..He went on to reveal that "one of their staffers has called multiple individuals in order to explicitly blackmail them," and that legal counsel has been provided with all the evidence to determine whether RCMP involvement is necessary.While Rustad did not reveal who had been targeted, he made it clear that those impacted will not be punished for whatever was said in private conversations and subsequently leaked."This is politics — people communicate many things in private which they do not intend for the world to see," he stated. "I am not concerned with prosecuting members of our team over people’s private communications with individuals who they once thought were their friends ... I will always have your back — to me, that's what it means to be a leader."Rustad vowed to ensure the party "will not allow ourselves to be lowered by manipulative, dishonest, and malicious actions of people who see fit to, potentially criminally, blackmail others," calling such behaviour "sociopathic.".According to Rebel News, many of the materials in question pertain to allegations that the BC Conservatives "rigged" the annual general meeting by paying around $100,000 to at least 100 members of the South Asian community in an attempt to influence them to vote for Rustad's slate of directors and constitutional amendments, choosing to accept or reject delegates based on their allegiance to Rustad, messing with the certification of riding associations to increase the party executive's ability to select delegates, and "stacking" pro-Rustad delegates into ridings they did not reside in.In a letter to the BC Conservatives, over 50 riding association directors past and present called for an external audit of the annual general meeting. They gave Rustad and his team until June 27 to respond to their demands.In a statement to the Western Standard, OneBC Leader's Office Communications Advisor Wyatt Claypool called the accusations levelled against OneBC by Rustad "insane," and argued that the BC Conservatives top brass were "trying to distract from" the allegations that they "rigged" the AGM."John Rustad and his inner circle have been given more than enough time to tell the truth about what happened at the AGM," he added, "and we still want them to come clean themselves or hold a third-party independent audit of the AGM."Rustad addressed the concerns in the aforementioned letter to caucus, going through each claim and offering an explanation. He also vowed to "engage a major law firm or accounting firm — or both, to ensure a transparent, professional, and functional leadership review process.".Rustad claimed that according to the party's legal council and expert scrutineers, the annual gneral meeting was "100% in line with this party's 2024-25 constitution.""I have been assured by all parties that all rules were followed," he added, "including the rules for membership, delegate fees, and delegate selection.""Scrutineers were specifically asked to speak up if they had any issues whatsoever before the ballot box was sealed by the Electoral Officer, who is a longtime political professional with extensive experience," Rustad continued. "The party only began receiving formal complaints from unsuccessful board candidates — individuals who are now no longer members of our party — after the board election concluded, votes were counted, and these people saw that individuals other than themselves were elected.".He went on to declare that "the assertion that some individuals are making that only one race of people or group was sponsored at our AGM is inaccurate," and that, "if you used funds from your riding to sponsor your delegates - as most of us did, you will note that they also do not appear as donors to our party on our elections BC filings.""My riding sponsored a number of folks from diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Caucasian, Indigenous, and Chinese individuals," Rustad said. "People have expressed to me their surprise that a large number of South Asians came to vote as part of various groups, with individuals having arranged to pay for the whole group's transportation. I get why people who have not participated in organized political parties before may be surprised by this phenomenon, but group-based political organizing occurs quite often in politics and is not unique to the South Asian community."
