Surrey’s Muslim Community Is Still Waiting to Meet with Brent Chapman

[Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of offensive comments.]

Muslim community advocates say a B.C. Conservative whose history of posting Islamophobic and racist content was unearthed during his election campaign has still not met with them, despite repeated invitations.

Brent Chapman, MLA for South Surrey, publicly apologized for the 2015 comments during the election campaign.

“The language I used and the sentiments I expressed at that time towards Palestinians and members of the Islamic faith were completely unacceptable,” he said in a statement. “They do not reflect who I am today or the respect and admiration I hold for the Palestinian and Muslim communities.”

But Asad Syed, chair of the White Rock Muslim Association, said members of his community need to meet with their new MLA in person to gauge whether he is sincere and to try to form a relationship with their elected representative after a very bad start.

“His remarks hurt our people,” said Syed. “We have many people in our community who are connected to Palestinians — their families are there.”

One of Chapman’s social media messages from 2015 described Palestinians as “little inbred walking, talking, breathing time bombs.”

Other posts from 2015 and 2016 showed Chapman sharing inaccurate posts about the dangers of allowing Syrian refugees into Canada, lurid stories about inbreeding in Saudi Arabia and calls to curtail immigration from Muslim countries to Canada. He often shared links to discredited sites peddling false information.

Chapman did not respond to The Tyee’s request for an interview for this story.

But on Oct. 9, Chapman released his apology, saying he had travelled to Muslim-majority countries since making the comments and learned more about Islam and “the incredible contributions Muslims make in our communities, both locally in Surrey and across Canada.”

Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad said he accepted Chapman’s apology.

Chapman won his riding by a large margin, but the BC NDP managed to eke out a win at 47 seats while the Conservatives took 44 seats and the Greens held on to two.

Chapman has been appointed the Conservative critic for transit and ICBC.

But Premier David Eby has said the NDP government is “just not going to be able to work with” some Conservative MLAs. He described Chapman as “a hateful man promoting hate and racism in our province.”

Syed said he had tried to reach out to both Chapman and Rustad through his own contacts but has so far failed to get in touch with either of the politicians.

He said he’s also attempted to contact Chapman’s wife, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, who represents Syed’s community federally as a Conservative MP for South Surrey-White Rock. But Syed said he has not heard back from Findlay either.

Findlay did not respond to The Tyee’s request for comment for this story.

Haroon Khan, director of the Al-Jamia Masjid mosque in Vancouver, said he has also reached out to Chapman and Rustad with an invitation to meet in person but has not heard back.

“The invitation is open to have a conversation,” Khan said. “I wanted to talk with him about his comments, I wanted to talk to him about where he is now. He’s made these statements, they were terrible, disgusting, really horrifying in many ways, and showed some deep-seated resentments, suspicion, Islamophobia.”

Khan and Syed had both previously called for Chapman to step down as a candidate, but they say that now that he is elected, they want to open the door to dialogue.

In an interview with the Surrey Now-Leader shortly after the election, Chapman said he had reached out to Muslims in his community.

“Some told me that they voted for me in the hope that I would get SOGI [sexual orientation and gender identity] out of schools, re-criminalize hard drugs, bring safety back to our streets, help people experiencing homelessness, and bring down the cost of living,” he told the newspaper. “I intend to honour their support, the support of the rest of my voters and work hard for all the people of Surrey South."

Chapman’s past social media comments came to light in the midst of tensions in Canadian society around Israel’s war in Gaza and fears of both rising antisemitism and Islamophobia in Canada. People who are advocating on behalf of Palestinians say they fear that speaking out has led to consequences like workplace investigations, job loss or media attacks. Jewish organizations have been concerned that the protests are leading to antisemitic hate.

The BC Conservatives made fighting antisemitism a key part of their platform, promising to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which critics say stifles criticism of Israel.

Following controversy over pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses across North America, the Conservatives also threatened to withhold funding from B.C. universities that fail to keep Jewish students safe from harassment on campus. The party also promised to investigate the B.C. teachers’ union for “pushing biased materials that promote one-sided views on the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

Saeed Naguib, who ran as an independent candidate in Surrey City Centre, called for more action from Chapman than just showing up at a mosque.

“An apology is just words, and it’s his actions going forward that matter,” Naguib said.

Naguib called on the party to stop supporting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, support the inclusion of the historical event called the Nakba in B.C.’s school curriculum and back a federal recommendation to define anti-Palestinian racism.

“Mr. Chapman has said nothing about this — he has not at all opposed his party’s stance,” Naguib said.