By Times Chronicle Staff
Indigenous leaders have renewed their calls for One BC Party Leader and Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie to resign over her residential school denialism, which they say is based on racism and is unbefitting of a member of the BC Legislature.
The calls were made ahead of the BC Cabinet and First Nations Leaders’ Gathering 2025 in Vancouver on Nov. 4-5 and stem from comments made by Brodie regarding residential school survivors back in March, and continue to this day, which saw her expelled from the Conservative Party of BC.
In a statement, the First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) called for the immediate resignation of Brodie and said it “rejects the deeply disturbed anti-Indigenous and residential school denialist rhetoric perpetuated by MLA Dallas Brodie and the OneBC party against First Nations in B.C.
“Their reprehensible words and actions continue to perpetuate harm against Residential School survivors and they must be investigated and held accountable.”
The Chiefs Executive Council of the Okanagan Nation Alliance has endorsed the calls for Brodie’s resignation and cited what it says is a recent image of Brodie on Penticton Indian Band land holding a sign that says “Zero Bodies” while standing in front of a larger sign that references the 215 suspected unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site.
The bilingual commemorative plaque for the Former Kamloops Indian Residential School National Historic Site. The Former Kamloops Indian Residential School was designated as a national historic site in 2024.
Government of Canada photo
Condemning the “denialism and anti-Indigenous racist rhetoric,” Chief Gabriel of the Penticton Indian Band and Tribal Chair Clarence Louie of the ONA said in a statement that “MLA Brodie owes our Elders and Indian Residential School survivors an apology.
“She owes the voters of Vancouver-Quilchena an apology. She owes all British Columbians an apology for her hateful and divisive rhetoric, which belongs in the dustbin of history, not the halls of the BC legislature.
“As we have said before, political leaders who hold and espouse racist and backward views are disqualified from public service, as such views and comments are hateful and hurtful to Indigenous people, and put at risk the government-to-government relationship with Indigenous Nations on whose land this province depends.”
BC Assembly of First Nations (BCAFN) Regional Chief Terry Teegee noted the BCAFN Chiefs had unanimously passed a resolution calling for her to resign, citing the 2024-2028 Reconciliation Action Plan.
Teegee said it’s disappointing to see a political voice spewing this kind of rhetoric in the legislature. “Our children were stolen and brought to these institutions, and some of them died there. That is the truth.”
“The actions of MLC Brodie and her party, OneBC, in actively promoting and using public funds to create and distribute Residential School denialism and anti-Indigenous rhetoric – both within and outside the Legislative Assembly, have sown division, fear, and hatred.
“Such conduct undermines public trust in the Legislature as a body which is supposed to represent the interests of all those who live in this province without discrimination. If trust in this institution is to be maintained, we must see immediate action,” Teegee said.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), similarly expressed his outrage at Brodie’s ongoing efforts to publicly cast doubt on the experiences and truths of residential school survivors.
“We urge the Province to make a significant and urgent investment in public education around Indian Residential Schools. Her so-called ‘truth-seeking’ is racist Residential School Denialism, which must be called out and rejected. Unfortunately, the taxpayers are currently on the hook for her racist behaviour, as she is carrying it out in the Legislature. We strongly support calls for her to resign.”
Describing Brodie as the “antithesis of reconciliation,” Robert Phillips, First Nations Summit Political Executive, said her actions show that racism is alive and well in BC.
“It is unconscionable that an elected official uses her public platform for what appears to be a personal, misguided vendetta to spread misinformation and racism in an attempt to create division and deny the horrible atrocities of the residential school system.
“Ms. Brodie has a responsibility as a public official to become informed and to support the constitutional imperative of reconciliation, not to attempt to erase First Nations’ history and truth,” adding that the Legislative Assembly “would be better served without her.”
The FNLC said it stands with survivors and inter-generational survivors of Indian Residential Schools and their families, as well as the children who never made it home and all those who are harmed by the deeply troubling trend of Indian Residential School denialism.
“The violent and traumatic history of these schools has been built on the testimony of those who attended and worked at the schools, including federal and provincial government representatives and churches, which have acknowledged the atrocities and apologized for these truths,” the FNLC said.
