John Rustad has defended his decision to boot Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie from caucus over comments she made "belittling" residential school survivors.The BC Conservative leader said that he tried to work with her to come to an agreement, there was simply no other path forward..UPDATED: Rustad boots Brodie from BC Conservative caucus for 'mocking' residential school survivors.In an interview with the Western Standard, Rustad explained that while Brodie was "correct" to point out that no mass graves have been located at residential schools, she "went far beyond that" during an appearance on a podcast with former professor Frances Widdowson, in which the MLA went off on those who treat lived experience as evidence.."I guess there's a person in our party who's indigenous," Brodie said, referring to House Leader and Chilliwack-Cultus Lake MLA Á’a:líya Warbus. "She was super angry and went to town and joined the NDP to call me out."Brodie went on to argue that it was of utmost importance to promote the truth, "not his truth, her truth, my grandmother's truth ... it's gotta be the truth." These words she delivered in what Rustad referred to as "belittling" and "childlike voices.""They need to decide whether they're going to be in favour of truth, or social pressure," she said of those in power, suggesting that those in her party who she deemed to have chosen the latter "belong in the NDP."Rustad said it was "when [Brodie] started talking in a childlike voices, belittling the horrific experience that survivors and families had gone through" that she crossed the line." He drew particular attention to the Kamloops residential school, where somebody was convicted of "multiple sex offences and other abuses.""I just felt that was just that was so insensitive and so beyond the pale that I just could not find a way to be able to come back from that," he added.Rustad went on to note that during a caucus meeting on Thursday, Brodie "demanded" that her fellow MLAs decide her fate in the party via a vote. After being told "that's not the way we do things," she "left caucus in a huff.""I tried to arrange a meeting with her to talk about what had happened," he added, "and she refused to meet her talk with me, so that left me, unfortunately, with no choice here today.".BC Conservatives split over MLA's Kamloops residential school post.In her original post on X, Brodie wrote that "the number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero, adding, "no one should be afraid of the truth. Not lawyers, their governing bodies, or anyone else."She was referring to attorney James Heller, who has received a considerable amount of backlash over his decision to sue the Law Society of British Columbia — a group to which he belongs — for libel after it repeated the claim that there were, in fact, mass graves at the Kamloops residential school.
John Rustad has defended his decision to boot Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie from caucus over comments she made "belittling" residential school survivors.The BC Conservative leader said that he tried to work with her to come to an agreement, there was simply no other path forward..UPDATED: Rustad boots Brodie from BC Conservative caucus for 'mocking' residential school survivors.In an interview with the Western Standard, Rustad explained that while Brodie was "correct" to point out that no mass graves have been located at residential schools, she "went far beyond that" during an appearance on a podcast with former professor Frances Widdowson, in which the MLA went off on those who treat lived experience as evidence.."I guess there's a person in our party who's indigenous," Brodie said, referring to House Leader and Chilliwack-Cultus Lake MLA Á’a:líya Warbus. "She was super angry and went to town and joined the NDP to call me out."Brodie went on to argue that it was of utmost importance to promote the truth, "not his truth, her truth, my grandmother's truth ... it's gotta be the truth." These words she delivered in what Rustad referred to as "belittling" and "childlike voices.""They need to decide whether they're going to be in favour of truth, or social pressure," she said of those in power, suggesting that those in her party who she deemed to have chosen the latter "belong in the NDP."Rustad said it was "when [Brodie] started talking in a childlike voices, belittling the horrific experience that survivors and families had gone through" that she crossed the line." He drew particular attention to the Kamloops residential school, where somebody was convicted of "multiple sex offences and other abuses.""I just felt that was just that was so insensitive and so beyond the pale that I just could not find a way to be able to come back from that," he added.Rustad went on to note that during a caucus meeting on Thursday, Brodie "demanded" that her fellow MLAs decide her fate in the party via a vote. After being told "that's not the way we do things," she "left caucus in a huff.""I tried to arrange a meeting with her to talk about what had happened," he added, "and she refused to meet her talk with me, so that left me, unfortunately, with no choice here today.".BC Conservatives split over MLA's Kamloops residential school post.In her original post on X, Brodie wrote that "the number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero, adding, "no one should be afraid of the truth. Not lawyers, their governing bodies, or anyone else."She was referring to attorney James Heller, who has received a considerable amount of backlash over his decision to sue the Law Society of British Columbia — a group to which he belongs — for libel after it repeated the claim that there were, in fact, mass graves at the Kamloops residential school.
