B.C.’s One B.C. party is being lambasted from all sides of the political spectrum after introducing a bill on Thursday to ban public employees in B.C. from making Indigenous land acknowledgements.
These acknowledgements are generally given at the start of speeches, recognizing the traditional territory on which the remarks are being made.
Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie called these statements an “anthem of a suicidal nation” in her introduction of the bill in the legislature on Oct. 23.
B.C. Conservative house leader Á’a:líya Warbus said the bill “obliterates” free speech, Green Party Leader Emily Lowan called it “abhorrent,” and Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert said he thought it was “gross.”
“It’s what this party trades in: conspiracy theories and hate,” Chandra Herbert said. “And it’s deeply saddening to see it on the floor of this legislature.”
The bill was defeated on a vote of 85 to five, failing to pass first reading.
B.C. Conservative MLAs Harman Bhangu and Heather Maahs joined Independent Jordan Kealy and the two One B.C. MLAs in voting for the bill to move forward.
It is unusual for private members’ bills to fail on first reading, but this is the second One B.C. bill to be voted down upon introduction so far this session. The first was a bill to stop doctors from providing puberty blockers to minors.
Bhangu explained to reporters that he did not necessarily support the bill, but felt that the convention for private members’ bills to move past first reading and onto debate ought to be upheld.
“I think British Columbians deserve to know what is in these bills that get put forward, and they should have the local representatives represent them in picking it apart or agreeing with it,” he said.
Brodie left the B.C. Conservative Party in March after publicly sparring with caucus leadership over statements she made denying evidence of children’s graves at residential schools.
She defended the bill, saying children do not deserve to be made to feel bad about their heritage, and suggesting B.C. was a “rainy, wet, muddy province” before British settlers “created a civilization we call home and enjoy today.”
“It is a magnanimous and glorious history and should be celebrated,” she said, adding that she is a fifth-generation Vancouverite.
Brodie said her bill would make it against the rules to impose “collective guilt” about B.C.’s history on schoolchildren and others. She disputed the notion that this is a restriction on free speech.
“Is that teachers’ right of free speech to tell all these children that they live on stolen land?” She asked. “We’re saying that’s not okay.”
Warbus disagrees.
“The bulk of our caucus and our party, we support free speech, and this bill completely obliterates that,” she said.
She also defended land acknowledgments as a form of reconciliation.
“I don’t think we can deny our history,” Warbus said. “We know exactly what has happened in this province, in Canada, and if we start to deny our history, then we can’t move forward.”