LINDSAY SHEPHERD: The REAL story behind why I was fired from the BC Conservatives
In an exclusive op-ed, Lindsay Shepherd spills the beans on the behind-the-scenes story on how she was fired by John Rustad's BC Conservatives
Last week, I was fired from my communications job with the Conservative Party of British Columbia caucus by its current leader, John Rustad. This was because of a single post on the social media platform X.
Just before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, I took to my personal X account to critique the fact that the B.C. Legislature building was flying an orange flag and displaying an orange shirt.
These symbols exploded in prevalence in 2021 after the Tk’emlups Nation in Kamloops, B.C. claimed they found the “remains” of 215 children in unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops residential school, even though to this day they have only found soil anomalies via radar technology.
Later that year, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dubbed National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a federal holiday, and famously took off to vacation in the surf town of Tofino on the inaugural official day, which is supposedly a solemn and reflective occasion.
The point of my post was that the orange shirt and orange flag perpetuate a narrative about Canada’s history – that 215 bodies of children were found at the Kamloops residential school – that hasn’t been proven true in the years since it has been claimed.
Orange Shirt Day itself has an origin story that dates back to the 2010s. A woman named Phyllis Webstad claims the staff at the St. Joseph Mission student residence in Williams Lake, where she went for one year, took her orange shirt away when she was 6 years old and made her wear a school uniform. But the point remains that you didn’t see a massive nationwide spike of orange indigenous-themed shirts until year 2021. And Orange Shirt Day overlaps with the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
I don’t post on social media too often, and I didn’t represent myself as a political party member or staffer on X, but my post resonated with a lot of people and was making the rounds.
You would think that a conservative party would value having staff that take Canadian history seriously and want to take a critical look at an issue before accepting claims without sufficient evidence.
But I was ordered by the Party, at the direction of Leader John Rustad, to remove the post.
I complied.
However, the pressure from two BC NDP MLAs, Rohini Arora and Spencer Chandra Herbert, was just too much for Rustad to bear. Arora and Herbert were publicly calling for my denouncement and firing, as was the head of the Union for B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), who is the spouse of BC NDP MLA Joan Philip.
It ultimately didn’t matter that I complied with the request to delete the X post, because Rustad capitulated to the demands of the leftist BC NDP and fired me.
In a two minute phone call, I was told that due to my post, I was being immediately terminated without cause.
My X post and firing had been public all along. A CBC radio host asked Rustad if questioning the narrative of residential schools in Canada is hateful.
“I think that spreading or making comments that could be viewed as inciting hate and racism is not welcome, it’s not welcome by me, and as long as I’m leader of this party, it will not be welcome as part of the Conservative Party of British Columbia,” answered Rustad.
To the Globe & Mail, he said, “When I talk about free speech, I talk about what I consider to be free speech that is reasonable about topics. I don’t mean free speech that promotes hate or racism.”
Rustad, foolishly, is playing into the hands of the left. He is uncritically adopting their position that critiquing politicized symbols and asking for more information about the claim of 215 unmarked graves is “hate” and “racism.”
He is chilling speech, buttressing a culture of ideological conformity and censorship, and promoting political correctness over truth-seeking.
Rustad so desperately wants to attract NDP voters that he chooses to alienate the Conservative base that propped him up in the 2024 election.
Unfortunately for Rustad, the base doesn’t want to prop him up anymore. Because for some of us, the “truth” part of “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” matters, and we don’t like it when pandering politicians think they can dictate the terms of open inquiry.
Rustad doesn’t defend conservatives and he doesn’t defend Canadian history against leftist attacks.
And in return, there are very few remaining that defend Rustad.
Lindsay Shepherd is the author of two books, “A Day with Sir John A” and “Diversity and Exclusion: Confronting the Campus Free Speech Crisis.”
Great article - Lindsay/Juno; I feel for this poor lady, she said nothing but facts. It was not emotional, her post was stated in a non-offensive way. Let me say the offensive side that wasn't in her post - why are the Natives who received millions and millions of dollars to exhume bodies not spending it on that? Why is it spent on 'consultants' and 'grief coucilling'? There is nothing to grieve on this topic of graves that are completely unproven. This whole thing is a scam - pure and simple, it is being used to steal money to line the pockets of chiefs and the 'elites' of the tribes. No bodies = these aren't graves.
I do agree with her. This is what Canada has come to a lot of untruths being told across the country, mostly by MSM