City of Kamloops allows OneBC event but isn’t happy about it

Controversial BC MLA Dallas Brodie will be in Kamloops this month for a town hall event after booking it at a city-owned facility.

After the OneBC MLA advertised the event, the City of Kamloops announced Wednesday it had no choice.

“The views expressed at this event are those of the organizers and speakers alone. They do not reflect the values of positions of the City of Kamloops,” reads a June 3 news release.

No city officials are quoted in the news release, but the City statement suggests any effort to deny the event at a municipality-owned facility would expose it to a Charter rights challenge it “would not succeed in defending,” according to the release.

Brodie, who has called the suspected graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School a “hoax,” will be in Kamloops, June 7, for a stop on what OneBC calls the “Backbone of BC” tour. She’s expected to be in Prince George and Kelowna the following week, but no venues in those cities have been announced.

It’s not the first time the Vancouver-Quilchena MLA has stopped in Kamloops.

Her visit to Thompson Rivers University last November hit a speed bump when the school said she didn’t have permission to hold her event on campus.

It was held on campus and she was met with a crowd or protesters, denouncing her for her stance on Indian residential schools.

OneBC, of which she’s the only sitting MLA, also produced a documentary with taxpayer funds to criticize First Nations and what it refers to as the “reconciliation industry.”

According to the City of Kamloops news release, it cannot deny a rental request based on the rhetoric or views of the organizers, so the event will go ahead.

“The City of Kamloops is unequivocal in its position. We do not support or condone residential school denialism, anti Indigenous racism, or any form of hate speech. These perspectives are harmful, undermine reconciliation, and stand in direct opposition to the values of respect, inclusion, and truth that we are committed to upholding as a municipality,” the City of Kamloops news release reads.

While Brodie takes her tour to the Interior of the province, she’s facing a recall petition by her own constituents, which was launched just last month in an effort to oust her from office.