Rustad stands by B.C. Conservative candidates under fire, says voters can judge them

VANCOUVER — B.C. Conservatives Leader John Rustad says it will be up to voters to judge his party’s candidates as he stood by a pair whose remarks on Indigenous and Muslim people drew condemnation from election rivals and other critics.

On Friday, NDP Leader David Eby called Vancouver-Quilchena candidate Dallas Brodie “ignorant” for her remarks that people who “want to be First Nations” should take responsibility for people on the city’s Downtown Eastside.

Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau said it was a “failure” by Rustad not to ditch Brodie and Surrey South candidate Brent Chapman, who apologized this week for calling Palestinian children “inbred” and “time bombs” on social media.

“When a candidate makes racist or hateful comments, it’s the leader’s responsibility to remove that candidate,” Furstenau said Friday on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“This is a failure of John Rustad — a failure he has repeated again and again.”

Asked about his candidates on Friday, Rustad said that British Columbians face a “stark choice” in the Oct. 19 provincial election.

“We have candidates who have said a number of things and represent their ridings, and it will be up to the people in the ridings to elect them,” Rustad said.

“The stark choice that we have is this: We have seen people dying on our streets from crime and drugs. Our health care system is collapsing and in crisis, our economy is in shambles … David Eby is doing nothing but attacking and slagging. I get that, because he cannot defend what he has done.”

Throughout the campaign, Rustad’s party has been dealing with fallout from a series of contentious remarks by candidates that have emerged on social media.

The latest is Brodie, who was seen in a video posted on X saying “it’s not OK” for First Nations communities “to leave your people” in the city’s impoverished Downtown Eastside.

“I believe when people say they want to be First Nations, they want autonomy, they want to be treated on an equal basis, equal footing … with those rights of being a First Nation comes responsibilities,” Brodie is seen telling a candidates meeting in the Dunbar neighbourhood on Thursday.

“And when a large percentage of your people are on the Downtown Eastside, it’s important that you come and take responsibility for that piece as well.”

Brodie said in a response shared by her party on Friday that she hadn’t been allowed to finish her remarks.

“We, as a government, need to work with First Nations to achieve reconciliation by helping Indigenous people who are suffering from addiction get into housing and treatment. We need to take action to heal this generational trauma,” she said.

She said that a Conservative government “will work with Indigenous leaders to develop treatment and recovery programs that are available within First Nations communities.”

Eby said Indigenous leaders were already working to provide housing and support in the Downtown Eastside and Brodie “wants to believe in her heart that Indigenous people are not taking action.”

Rustad has also been facing questions about why his party is the only one that has yet to release a costed platform, with just days to go before the Oct. 19 election and with advance voting already well underway.

Elections BC said more than 170,000 people in the province voted on Thursday — a record for the first advance-voting day in an election.

Almost 45,000 more people voted than on the first voting day in 2017, when overall turnout went on to reach 61 per cent, the highest in almost two decades.

Rustad said the absence of a platform was deliberate and it would likely be released in the next few days.

“Once you release a fully costed platform, you’ve released your entire platform,” Rustad said. “And so, we’re using this opportunity through the campaign for people to understand who we are, the things that we want to bring.”

Asked about the tone of the campaign at an event in Comox, B.C., on Friday, Eby said it was important voters knew the values of candidates.

“I think people were making light of these candidates early on. They were calling them a clown car of candidates. And it’s not a minor thing. These views are a threat to our way of life in British Columbia. What makes us successful and prosperous? Working together and communities that aren’t divided and we need to fight that.”

On Friday, both the B.C. Muslim Association and the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs called for Chapman’s removal.

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said Rustad should remove his candidate after he was seen in a video dated Sept. 17 agreeing with a podcast host who described the residential schools topic as a “massive fraud.”

“B.C. Conservative candidate Brent Chapman’s comments on the residential school system are racist and despicable,” union vice-president Chief Don Tom said in a post on social media. “John Rustad needs to condemn these hurtful and racist remarks and fire Brent Chapman.”

In a letter to the B.C. Conservative Party and Chapman, the B.C. Muslim Association said comments like the one Chapman posted in 2015 “promotes division and hate” and it was imperative he be asked to step down.

Chapman wrote of Palestinian children: “They are all little inbred walking, talking, breathing time bombs … figuratively and quite literally.”

The National Council of Canadian Muslims had already condemned Chapman’s post as deeply Islamophobic, disgusting, and utterly unacceptable.

On Thursday, Chapman issued his “sincerest apologies to everyone hurt” by his posts, adding that the comments “do not reflect who I am today.”

Rustad said his party was focusing on “clear policies” that would improve people’s lives, such as the party’s promise Friday to expand access to fertility treatments including funding for two rounds of invitro fertilization treatment and granting one-month paid compassionate leave after a miscarriage.

The party also pledged to establish a midwife training school in Surrey, B.C.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.

Ashley Joannou and Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press