By Cole Pawlak
On November 12, OneBC leader and MLA Dallas Brodie, joined by two disgraced and bitter former educators, made the bold choice of taking their party’s unpopular, racist residential school denialism and colonialist apologism to the generally progressive Thompson Rivers University (TRU) campus in Kamloops BC.
Brodie, former University of Alberta professor Frances Widdowson and former Abbottsford teacher Jim McMurtry promoted their arrival with an online poster using TRU’s logo without permission. The poster read “Where are the 215 bodies?” which is a reference to the 215 unmarked graves discovered by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in 2021.
The trio was faced with a notice issued by TRU under the BC Trespass Act, and over 100 counter protesters comprised of students, faculty and TRU staff, booing and chanting “get off our campus.” The three cried the typical crocodile tears and cowered behind the predictable reactionary defense of “we’re just asking questions,” but were promptly kicked off campus.
According to a statement by TRU President and Vice Chancellor Airini, Brodie had been told earlier this year that she was not authorized to hold events on or film near TRU.
Brodie had planned a “town hall” for the day after, but popular support against her message led to her venue being cancelled. She tried to book a second venue, which was to be revealed last minute to avoid being kicked out again, but this was cancelled as well, and she was forced to hold her meet and greet in a parking lot.
OneBC is a split from the BC Conservatives which was founded on June 9 and currently holds two seats in the Legislative Assembly. It has a history of residential school denialism. Their official account made a post on X just days after the event on November 20 stated: “Canadians did nothing wrong to the indigenous. We have no regrets. We have nothing to apologize for. We’re proud to have built Canada.” They have also proposed a bill to “end Truth and Reconciliation Day” as a holiday.
In a CBC radio interview, Rosanne Casimir, kúkpi7 (chief) of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, stated: “[Brodie is] determined to undermine public trust, reconciliation and what she’s saying threatens the safety of Indigenous peoples,” in addition to calling for Brodie’s resignation.
This event is part of a wider trend of rising far-right voices across Canada and internationally. The response to Brodie also shows that there are many workers and progressive minded people who are prepared to fight back against this racist, pro-colonialist rhetoric and ideology.
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