Independent B.C. MLAs deny allegations of racism as sovereignty clash continues

An Okanagan First Nations community is calling for the resignation of Independent MLA Dallas Brodie after controversial comments.

A clash that began in the B.C. legislature earlier this month has escalated into an increasingly public argument between the province’s independent MLAs, the premier, and First Nations groups, with allegations of racism featuring prominently.

The independents insist they’re championing “equal opportunity” of all British Columbians, while critics denounce their comments as inaccurate, divisive, and “explicit racism.”

On May 1, Dallas Brodie stood in the legislature and decried “the greatest threats to our unity – political interference by the Chinese Communist Party, the fragmentation of B.C. by over 200 bands each asserting its own sovereignty,” and environmental groups purportedly backed by U.S. interests.

Premier David Eby immediately responded that her “incoherent and consistently racist posturing in this House (are) against Indigenous and First Nations that do, in fact, have rights and sovereignty in this province.”

The Penticton Indian Band wrote a letter to Brodie, Tara Armstrong, and Jordan Kealy, to express “deep outrage” that their joint statement “not only demonstrates a troubling disregard for Indigenous rights and jurisdiction, but it also fuels a broader climate of systemic racism by suggesting that Indigenous governance is incompatible with public good.”

It goes on to denounce the “divisive rhetoric” and “explicit racism,” calling for the independent members of the legislature to resign.

Doubling down

Far from doing so, Armstrong and Brodie sent their own letter to the band on Monday, posting the document publicly. It alleges there have been “disastrous results” in response to billions of taxpayer dollars to the “reconciliation industry” and that “British Columbia simply cannot accommodate more than 200 sovereignties within its borders.”

It should be noted that hundreds of municipal governments make decisions for their cities, parallel to the provincial government, with little controversy.

In interviews with CTV News, the MLAs denied any racist mindset and claimed their comments are in the interests of equality.

“I think we fight every day to make sure that everybody in this province has equal opportunity, and the last thing we want to do is divide people based on race or anything like that,” said Armstrong.

“I would say that we want to be undivisive and get away from policies that are rooted in racial differences,” insisted Brodie, who was ejected from the B.C. Conservative party earlier this year after mocking residential schools.

Grand Chief backs Penticton band

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip fully backs the Penticton Indian Band’s letter to the independents and slammed Monday’s response.

“It doesn’t feature any facts or, new perspectives or information that just continues, racialized, discriminatory, discriminatory, attack on Indigenous peoples,” he said.

Phillip added that not only did all of B.C.’s MLAs vote in favour of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2019, but more Canadians are understanding and supportive of residential school survivors and the painful legacy of that era in our history.

To see comments like Brodie’s in the legislature, he says, “it’s so counterproductive, it’s so destructive, it’s so divisive.”