OneBC Leader’s Comments Drive Indigenous Delegation from Legislature

Representatives of the Métis Nation British Columbia visiting the legislature Monday got up and left the public gallery in disgust as OneBC Leader Dallas Brodie asked a question rooted in residential school denial.

Brodie’s question “felt incredibly disrespectful,” said Patrick Harriott, the organization's acting vice-president.

“We have people, we have relatives that went to residential schools that witnessed these things, and so it's denying all of those statements from all of those people and all that intergenerational trauma that's still being carried.”

One of the people in the delegation was physically triggered listening to the question from the Vancouver-Quilchena MLA, Harriott said. “It's visceral. It's not an intellectual exercise for us. These are our family members’ stories.”

Earlier this year Brodie was kicked out of the Conservative Party of BC by leader John Rustad for publicly mocking and belittling testimony from former residential school students, including by mimicking individuals recounting stories of abuses.

Since then she and Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong, who quit the Conservatives, have formed OneBC. With two seats in the legislature, they are entitled to participate in question period every day.

On Monday Brodie prefaced a question about a Kamloops court case involving Aboriginal title with an attack on the First Nation.

“For four years, the Kamloops Indian Band has been pretending to have found the remains of 215 murdered children, perpetuating the worst lie in Canadian history,” she said.

In May 2021 the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc nation released a statement saying preliminary findings from a survey of the site by ground-penetrating radar, combined with previous knowledge and oral history, indicated 215 children had been buried at the site.

The nation subsequently revised its statements to describe the findings as potential burial sites.

Attorney General Niki Sharma responded for the government. “I find myself often at a loss for words when this member raises what is a very painful and shameful line of denialism for residential schools,” she said.

“On behalf of survivors in this House, I want to condemn that,” said Sharma. “We stand on the side of survivors that are searching for the truth and searching for us to stand with them in pursuit of that truth.”

Harriott and about half a dozen other representatives of the Métis Nation British Columbia were visiting the legislature for Métis lobby days, which are linked to Louis Riel Day — observed on Nov. 16, the anniversary of Métis leader Riel’s 1885 execution — and to meet with politicians, including Sharma, Premier David Eby and Rustad.

“There's obviously still education that needs to be done,” said Harriott. “We're well aware of that as Métis people.”

For Métis people in particular, there’s misunderstanding of who they are, he added. “If it was part of the curriculum, if everyone was educated as to the history with Indigenous people by the time they graduated high school, I don't think we'd be in this place in 20 years. I'd really like to see that happen.”

Asked how OneBC’s approach compares with that of the other three parties represented in the legislature, Harriott was direct.

“I think the other three parties aren't overtly racist. So, you know, maybe I'll just stop right there.”

“My blood boils when I hear racism and ignorance,” said Debra Fisher, the MNBC’s director for the Kootenays. “I got triggered because I have heard the most horrendous stories that nobody should have to hear, but the worst thing is no child in this country, in this province, should ever have had to live it.”

Fisher previously worked in positions supporting residential school survivors and their descendants.

“When you hear these stories over and over again, from people all over the province at different schools, there’s no way in hell you’re going to tell me they’re not telling the truth,” she said. “I will always stand up for First Nations, I will always stand up for the Métis people and the children that died in those places.”

That Brodie continues to question the truth of what happened at residential schools is particularly infuriating, Fisher said. “When people are that ignorant, to me they are privileged people,” she said.

“How does somebody in her position get to talk like that in a place of Parliament where all should feel safe. Today I did not feel safe. There is no way in 2025, with everything that we know about residential schools, all that we’re trying to accomplish with reconciliation, that we should have even somebody like that in that House, let alone allowed to spew that kind of bullshit in it.”