A rift between British Columbia Conservative Leader John Rustad and his attorney general critic over her views on residential schools has culminated in her ejection from the Opposition caucus.
Rustad described a showdown in the Conservative caucus room on Thursday in which he said Dallas Brodie challenged her colleagues to fire her and asked for a vote on her removal before walking out.
“As a result of her decision to publicly mock and belittle testimony from former residential school students, including by mimicking individuals recounting stories of abuses — including child sex abuse — MLA Brodie is not welcome to return to our Conservative Party of BC Caucus,” Rustad said in a statement on Friday.
In remarks aimed directly at the Member for Vancouver-Quilchena, Rustad said he believed strongly in free speech “however, using your stature and platform as an MLA to mock testimony from victims alleging abuse, including child sex abuse, is where I draw the line.”
Brodie did not immediately respond to an interview request
Brodie’s removal comes after she posted on social media last month that “zero” child burials had been confirmed at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Brodie also questioned the “apparent mistreatment” of a lawyer who had asked for the rewording of Law Society training material about residential schools.
She defied Rustad’s request that she delete the original post, triggering a rift in the Opposition.
Brodie later appeared in a video saying colleagues who criticized her belonged in the governing NDP, and appeared to single out Conservative house leader A’aliya Warbus, who is Indigenous.
“There’s a person in our party who’s Indigenous, and she, you know, was super angry and went to town and joined the NDP to call me out,” Brodie said in the video posted to social media.
She also said it was important to have “the truth” about residential schools, “not his truth, her truth, my grandmother’s truth … this stuff has to stop.”
Brodie used a high-pitched singsong voice as she mimicked those she disagreed with.
Rustad, who highlighted Brodie’s use of the “childlike whining” voice in his statement, said her ejection “has nothing to do with whether or not there are undiscovered remains at Kamloops Indian Residential School, where it is objectively true that no new bodies have been found.”
“This is about an elected MLA using her position of authority to mock testimony of survivors of abuse, including child sex abuse,” said Rustad, a former minister of aboriginal relations and reconciliation.
Brodie had claimed in the video that she had the support of about 20 MLAs who were “100 per cent behind” her.
But other Conservatives have expressed concern about the situation, including Brennan Day, who posted a photo with Warbus on Thursday saying he was “proud to stand behind” her.
Day warned in an interview on Friday against “watering down” the conversation about residential schools. He was speaking before Brodie’s ejection was announced.
This report by Marcy Nicholson, The Canadian Press, was first published March 7, 2025.
