OneBC leader and Vancouver‑Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie’s planned appearance outside the University of British Columbia’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre drew large counter‑protests Thursday and resulted in one person’s arrest, police said.
Brodie, joined by OneBC candidate Jim McMurtry and former Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson, arrived for what the university described as a protest event in front of the centre. They were met by a large group of demonstrators opposed to their presence.
Protesters in orange “Every Child Matters” shirts chanted, blew whistles and used noisemakers to express solidarity with Indigenous communities and opposition to Brodie’s visit.
University RCMP said officers intervened after the situation “escalated to a point where police intervention became necessary to maintain public safety.” One person was arrested and later released without charges, the detachment said.
Social media videos show Widdowson being carried away by RCMP officers after she refused to leave when directed.
The university said campus security and RCMP developed a safety plan ahead of the event and that when it became clear there were potential safety risks, Brodie and her group were told to leave for their own safety. Because they did not follow those instructions, RCMP “facilitated their departure from campus,” the statement said.
“The university has established policies and processes it follows when addressing behaviours or actions by community members or visitors where there is imminent risk of harm or a threat to safety, and will follow those processes as appropriate,” UBC said.
Brodie said in a social media video that although the event “generally went really well,” she was later assaulted multiple times by what she described as a “mob.”
This was the second recent campus incident involving Brodie. In December, police escorted her and others off the University of Victoria campus when they tried to hold an event without the school’s permission.
Brodie was removed from the B.C. Conservative caucus in March after mocking residential school survivors in a video, an action condemned by her former party.
OneBC no longer holds official party status after internal party conflicts led to the party’s only other MLA, Tara Armstrong, stepping away to sit as an Independent.
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