Vaughn Palmer: Division within the B.C. Conservatives over residential schools post and tariff vote has NDP making political hay
VICTORIA — B.C. Conservative MLA Dallas Brodie generated a major distraction for her party this week with a post on social media regarding the death of children in residential schools.
“The number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero,” wrote Brodie in a weekend posting on her X account. “Zero.”
She was commenting on a controversy that has lately roiled the B.C. Law Society. The New Democrats seized the opening to go on the attack against the Opposition.
“Abhorrent behaviour from John Rustad’s team,” posted the minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation, Christine Boyle. “There is no place in B.C. for residential school denialism.”
Come Monday, Conservative leader John Rustad appeared to agree with the charge that MLA Brodie had minimized the tragedy of what happened in residential schools.
“The reality, when it comes to residential schools in Canada, is that more than 4,000 children did not return home,” Rustad told reporters in a comment worth quoting at length.
“They went to school. They were taken from their families and more than 4,000 children did not return home. Those children died in residential schools.
“Tragically, they decided at the time not to send the deceased home for burial. They buried them on site. Just about every residential school in the country has a cemetery, has children who passed at a residential school, who have been buried there. So that’s just the facts with it. That’s the concern; that’s the issue.
“I sat in on the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, when it was in Vancouver,” said Rustad, who served as minister of Aboriginal relations during the last B.C. Liberal government. “I heard the stories from the elders of what went on in the schools, of friends and relatives that passed. That’s what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was all about.”
Rustad also confirmed Monday that he’d asked MLA Brodie to take down her social media posting out of a concern that “it may be misinterpreted” regarding the residential schools issue.
“It doesn’t change the facts that there hasn’t been anything found at that site, but it also doesn’t change the facts of the tragedy that has been the residential schools.”
The leader’s plea did not persuade Brodie to take down her posting.
“The stand I’m taking is rooted in the need for truth,” she told reporters, citing her support for a lawyer who is challenging the law society over its insistence on there being burial sites — as opposed to “potential” burial sites — at the Kamloops residential school.
“I don’t think standing for truth takes away anything from the severity of what happened at the residential schools,” said Brodie, herself a lawyer.
Others joined the debate between the party leader and the MLA, bolstering the NDP’s case that the Conservatives were split on the issue.
“Inform yourself, get the latest facts, research AND talk to survivors,” posted A’a:liya Warbus, house leader for the Conservatives and a member of the Sto:Lo Nation.
“Questioning the narratives of people who lived and survived these atrocities is nothing but harmful and taking us backward in reconciliation.”
Then there was Brian Breguet, who came within 400 votes of winning Vancouver-Langara for the Conservatives in the last election: “John Rustad is a coward and needs to be replaced.”
Among the many truths regarding the tragedy of residential schools, I prefer Rustad’s emphasis.
However, Monday’s spectacle distracted the Conservatives from the main Opposition business of holding the government to account.
Speaking of distractions, later that day Brodie and four colleagues broke with the other Conservative MLAs to vote against an NDP motion that read in part: “This house condemns President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs … and endorses the Team Canada plan to respond with proportionate retaliatory action, including strategically targeting industries and regions such as products from Republican states.”
The motion was contrived by the New Democrats to provoke a split in the Conservatives and it succeeded in doing so.
“It was a trap,” admitted Conservative party whip Bruce Banman, who then explained why his party walked into it eyes wide open.
Some Conservatives think retaliatory tariffs could provoke escalation. Others say it is a mistake to target states for their political affiliations.
Overall, the Conservatives are determined to allow their MLAs to vote their consciences on such matters.
“What you saw for the first time in a long time was MLAs were given the right to vote the way they wanted,” explained Banman. “When people vote for an MLA — they don’t want that MLA to be a bobbling, parroting head like what’s happening with the NDP.”
In short, says Banman, “the news media is going to have to get used to this,” because there’ll be more free votes among the Conservatives this session.
While Banman tried to make a virtue of the division in the ranks, NDP house leader Ravi Kahlon tried to make political hay.
“The Conservatives are more interested in flying the MAGA flag than the Canadian flag,” he declared, betting that the public will buy the government narrative as opposed to the one from the Opposition.