#john rustad

BC Conservative leader John Rustad assured anti-vaccine activists British Columbia would be open to joining other jurisdictions in legal proceedings inspired by the Nuremberg Trials that would be aimed at prosecuting those deemed responsible for COVID-19 public health measures and vaccines. “Nuremberg 2.0,” an idea popular among COVID-19 conspiracy theorists and the online far-right, is simultaneously inspired by the Nuremberg Code, a set of ethical principles on human experimentation, as well as the Nuremberg Trials that prosecuted Nazi leaders after the Second World War. Nuremberg 2.0 advocates typically call for those who created, justified or enforced public health measures — including politicians, doctors, academics, journalists and police — to be jailed and even executed for “crimes against humanity.”

Continue Reading

British Columbia saw a rare unanimous vote in its legislature in October 2019, when members passed a law adopting the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, setting out standards including free, prior and informed consent for actions affecting them. The law “fundamentally changed the relationship” between First Nations and the province, said Terry Teegee, regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations. [...] John Rustad threw his support behind the legislation as a member of the Official Opposition B.C. Liberal Party, but as the B.C. Conservative leader he has since signalled his intention to “repeal” the law if his party wins the Oct. 19 provincial election.

Continue Reading

The Latest: John Rustad has been removed as leader of the B.C. Conservatives, according to the party's board. Speaking to reporters before question period, Rustad said "nothing has changed" and that he remains leader. He added on social media: "I am not going anywhere." The board's decision comes after months of turmoil in the party that have seen legislature members (MLAs) resigning from or being kicked out of caucus. A letter released today, signed by 20 of the party's MLAs said they had "lost confidence" in Rustad's leadership. Trevor Halford, MLA for Surrey-White Rock, said he has been selected as interim leader of the party, but it's unclear who will be the leader of the Official Opposition in the B.C. legislature.

Read more.

British Columbia’s 2024 provincial election is still up in the air after a rollercoaster election night that saw neither the BC NDP nor the BC Conservatives secure enough seats to form a majority government. The final outcome of BC’s election will not be clear for over a week with results in several key ridings separated by less than a few hundred votes. Those results could potentially flip after final ballots are counted and mandatory recounts are conducted. What is clear is that the results represent a major political realignment in BC. The BC Conservatives, a far-right party previously relegated to the fringes of BC politics, received only 1% of the vote and held no seats after the previous election in 2020. But on the morning after election night in 2024, the BC Conservatives received more than 43% of the vote and won at least 40 seats.

Continue Reading

One of John Rustad’s most controversial BC Conservative candidates shared a graphic featuring imagery of handguns and violent suicide rhetoric following the 2016 election of Donald Trump instructing “liberals” on how to “kill themselves.” Brent Chapman, the BC Conservative candidate for Surrey South, has been facing widespread calls to resign or be removed as a candidate in response to a series of videos and social media postings touching on hateful and conspiratorial themes. Chapman first came under scrutiny after the resurfacing of past statements on social media falsely claiming Muslims and Palestinians engage in “inbreeding.” Another video showed Chapman suggesting what happened at residential schools was a “massive fraud” while other social media postings showed he called for a “boycott” of Air Canada to stop airlifts of Syrian refugees.

Continue Reading

The organization representing British Columbia’s 50,000 public school teachers says the BC Conservative education platform will do nothing to address the real needs of the province’s students and instead reads like a set of policies written by right-wing ideologues in the American Deep South. This week, BC Conservative leader John Rustad unveiled his party’s education platform, with a big focus on purging “ideology” from classrooms by having the government review and remove educational materials from BC schools. “Ideology has no place in a classroom and parents are tired of being called ‘hateful’ by the NDP,” the BC Conservative platform states. “When kids go to school, parents trust and expect the school to provide a quality education … not activist ideology that could send kids down a dangerous path.”

Continue Reading

The B.C. Coroners Service says it has no record of any recent drug toxicity death at a Vancouver intersection where B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said he saw a man die while on his way to a televised election debate — a story the Tory leader would later change completely. Rustad told Tuesday's party leaders' debate that he saw someone die "from an overdose" on the corner of Robson and Hornby streets in Vancouver, later telling a news conference he watched first responders "pumping his chest" as an ambulance arrived. The B.C. Coroners Service says it would be notified of a deadly overdose, and it has no record of such an event in the last two and a half weeks at the location given by Rustad. The service says if first responders were on scene and a person died, "a coroner would be called," and it would also be notified if a person received resuscitation but later died in hospital. 

Continue Reading

First Nations leaders say BC Conservative leader John Rustad was “offensive and insulting” in a segment on Indigenous issues during Tuesday night’s leaders’ debate that saw Rustad used paternalistic rhetoric while discussing his plan to repeal a law protecting Indigenous rights. “I find that remark to be absolutely offensive and insulting given the amazing progress we’ve made with the provincial government over the last several years,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs told PressProgress. During Tuesday night’s leaders’ debate, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad gave a  bumbling response to a question about Indigenous communities in BC. Rustad has previously signaled that the BC Conservatives hope to repeal the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, focusing instead on what Rustad calls “economic reconciliation.”

Continue Reading