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Lindsay Shepherd says she’s now been fired from the Conservative Party of BC after complaining in an X post about having to view National Day for Truth and Reconciliation symbols.
Shepherd, who was a communications staffer with the party and a former board member, wrote a post on Sept. 25 that took aim at an orange flag being raised at the B.C. legislature in advance of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. She also complained about an orange shirt being displayed inside the legislature.
The flag and shirt commemorate the experiences of Indigenous children who attended residential schools and suffered widespread physical, emotional and sexual abuse, the loss of language and culture, high rates of death and disease and being separated from their parents for long periods of time.
In a post she later deleted, Shepherd wrote that “the Orange Shirt and the Orange Flag perpetuate untruths about Canadian history” and called it a “disgrace” the flag was flown at the legislature. The orange shirt display means “locals and tourists cannot view our insignia without having their eye drawn and directed to the orange shirt.”
On Tuesday Shepherd again posted about National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, sarcastically writing “Never forget about the sacred origins of this federal holiday!” above a screenshot of a news article about former prime minister Justin Trudeau spending the first official National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021 on vacation in Tofino.
On Wednesday, Shepherd announced she’d been fired from the party’s caucus because of her Sept. 25 post. She said she was fired just as she was about to go on maternity leave for her third child.
Shepherd’s posts stood in stark contrast with how BC Conservative MLAs acted and spoke about National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which was made an official federal statutory holiday in 2021.
Scott McInnis, the party’s critic for Indigenous relations, posted photos of himself speaking at the legislature flag-raising ceremony. He also released a statement that said: “Truth and Reconciliation Day is a solemn reminder of Residential Schools and their lasting impacts on Indigenous people in Canada.”
In a video posted to X, Shepherd said her views are not unusual in Conservative circles. She also played a recording of the meeting where she was told she had been fired. In the recording, an unnamed human resources staffer told Shepherd her comments had caused “significant issues across the province” and that the decision to fire her had been made by party leader John Rustad.
Residential school denialism has become a common talking point in right-wing politics, and the B.C. Conservatives have struggled with how to deal with the rhetoric.
The party previously ejected MLA Dallas Brodie after she made comments publicly questioning House Leader Á’a:líya Warbus’s place in the party and mocking residential school survivors. (Warbus is a member of the Sto:lo Nation.)
Brodie then went on to form her own party, OneBC, with another former Conservative MLA, Tara Armstrong.
OneBC reacted to Shepherd’s dismissal on X, calling the move “absolutely disgraceful.” They called on “the actual conservatives” in the party to think about whether party leader John Rustad will also “throw you under the bus for standing for something you believe in?”
Shepherd was a board member of the B.C. Conservatives when a young group of political organizers were reshaping the party to be a more hard-right, populist choice for voters. ![[Tyee]](/design-article.thetyee.ca/ui/img/yellowblob.png){kind=small}
Read more: BC Politics
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