One B.C. Leader Dallas Brodie defended her appearance at the University of British Columbia in which she was chased off campus by several hundred protesters as an attempt at “dialogue.”
“If you don’t allow people to speak, guess what? The temperature rises out there, and people get mad,” Brodie told Black Press Media on Friday, Jan. 23, the day after the event. “Because dialogue is the only way to fix things.”
But Brodie acknowledged that it was also her aim, at least in part, to encourage this sort of uproar. She wants to “cast a light” on what she says is an effort to “silence discussion” on college campuses.
“To me, this was a successful event yesterday,” she said.
@todayinbc One B.C. Leader Dallas Brodie is defending a controversial appearance at the University of British Columbia that ended with her being escorted off campus after hundreds of protesters disrupted the event. Brodie says the backlash was intentional and claims the confrontation highlighted what she views as an unwillingness to allow debate on university campuses. Protesters opposed Brodie and speaker Frances Widdowson over their views on residential school graves, forcing the pair to leave under police escort. UBC says campus security and RCMP intervened as the situation escalated. Video credit: @scooterdom #BCPolitics #UBC #CampusProtest #DallasBrodie #OneBC #IndigenousIssues #FreeSpeech #CanadianPolitics #TodayInBC #residentialschool #backlash #brodie #rcmp #controversial #ubccampus ♬ original sound – Today In BC
Hundreds of protesters showed up to greet Brodie and the activist Frances Widdowson, both known for questioning the evidence of children’s graves at residential schools, as they arrived on campus to speak in front of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. The crowd sounded horns, blew whistles and yelled, “One B.C. off our campus.”
At one point, the demonstrators “crushed in on” Brodie. She alleges two men wearing masks assaulted her.
“I was hit on the arm once, and then another young guy came by and took his whole body and sort of side-checked me,” she said.
The situation escalated to the point that Brodie and her followers were forced to take refuge in the aquatic centre.
“Then the mob tried to get in,” Brodie said. “They were almost breaking the doors down. Honestly, it was crazy.”
Brodie and her supporters were then escorted to a bus by police and driven off campus.
The university said in a statement that campus security and the RCMP asked the One B.C. members to leave as the situation escalated.
“As the visitors were not following these instructions, RCMP then facilitated their departure from campus,” the UBC statement says. “One individual was arrested by RCMP and later released without charge.”
But Brodie counters that she was never approached by staff or police and told to leave.
The university also states that it was aware of One B.C.’s visit ahead of time and had prepared accordingly.
It also says the university’s stance on Truth and Reconciliation is clear — it supports “meaningful reconciliation” — but the school is also committed to “upholding free inquiry, the free exchange of ideas and opinion, academic freedom, diversity of perspective, and reasoned debate.”
Brodie contends the presence of the protesters, which she estimated at 500 to 600, meant there was “no dialogue.” She called UBC the “belly of the beast for this stuff.”
This is not the first school Brodie has shown up at and stirred up protests. A similar appearance at the University of Victoria in December also ended with demonstrations and an arrest. In that instance, university officials warned One B.C. members they would be trespassing if they did not leave campus.
Brodie has courted controversy ever since becoming an MLA in 2024. She left the B.C. Conservative Caucus after only a few months amid a dispute with party leadership over her questioning the evidence of children’s graves at residential schools in social media posts.
She later formed the One B.C. party with Tara Armstrong, and the pair introduced a slew of provocative private member’s bills last fall, mainly focused on curtailing government support for reconciliation and transgender rights initiatives. Premier David Eby has called her views “hateful,” and Indigenous leaders have called for her resignation.
Armstrong has now left the party in a dispute about a staffer who allegedly made anti-Semitic comments and social media posts. Armstrong wanted to keep the staffer on; Brodie wanted him fired.