The party’s stance on the damage done to Indigenous children has become a campaign issue.

The Tyee: Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad says he has heard first-hand from Elders about residential school abuses during Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.

“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission did a good job, and I think that’s part of the work that I did back then, and the work that — should we have the honour of forming government — we will continue to do,” Rustad told The Tyee, referring to his time as Aboriginal affairs minister in the former BC Liberal government.

Rustad was responding to a question about Lindsay Shepherd, a BC Conservative board member who has repeatedly questioned findings of unmarked graves at residential schools.

In social media posts, Shepherd has said she refuses to wear an orange shirt on Sept. 30 and accused a public library of lying because it displayed a poster that referenced the 215 possible unmarked grave sites discovered at Kamloops Indian Residential School in 2020.

Orange Shirt Day was created by residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad, who has told her story about being six years old and feeling excited to wear a new orange shirt for her first day at residential school.

But when she arrived at St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in Williams Lake, she was stripped and the shirt was taken from her. The story has come to represent the cruelty of the residential school system in Canada.

Shepherd also said she found it troubling that B.C.’s high school curriculum now includes a requirement that students must complete some “Indigenous-focused coursework.”

Shepherd is not the only BC Conservative to express doubt about residential school abuses. Sheldon Clare, Conservative candidate for Prince George-North Cariboo, has been criticized for repeatedly casting doubt on or downplaying residential school abuses.

Both Shepherd and Clare repeatedly cited the Dorchester Review and former University of Calgary professor Frances Widdowson as sources for their skepticism about the deadly and abusive nature of residential schools.

Both sources have been discredited by historians and the first-hand testimony of residential school survivors.

On Monday, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs released a statement calling on all provincial candidates to stand with residential school survivors.

“The Union of BC Indian Chiefs is extremely concerned that candidates in Mr. Rustad’s BC Conservative Party are openly doubting the truths that Residential School Survivors have bravely and generously shared,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said in the statement.

“There is no place for such racist and hurtful actions in our society, let alone in government. It is crucial that we validate and honour the experiences of those who have suffered, acknowledging their truths and the courage it takes to share them.”

In addition to questionable comments from party members about residential school, Rustad’s stance has caused alarm for some Indigenous leaders in B.C.

The Conservative leader had said he would repeal B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, legislation considered foundational to reconciliation, and reverse other agreements made under the current BC NDP government.

The province has described DRIPA as a framework to move forward on reconciliation. It’s meant to eventually bring all laws in the province in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Rustad has also reversed his support for a groundbreaking title agreement with the Haida Nation and said he would scrap a commitment to protect 30 per cent of provincial land by 2030, an initiative undertaken in large part with First Nations.

Read more: Rustad Is a Threat to First Nations and a Threat to Reconciliation

On Monday, Rustad’s party announced a plan for reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples that focuses mainly on economic opportunities in forestry and mining.

The next day, Rustad walked back his position on DRIPA, saying he would leave the legislation in place but might repeal it in future if the legislation is slowing down “economic reconciliation.”

Rustad has previously made controversial statements about residential schools. In several interviews this year, he compared sexual orientation and gender identity policies in B.C. schools with residential schools. Rustad said SOGI policies, which are meant to prevent bullying in schools, take away parental rights, similar to the way Indigenous parents lost the right to decide how their children were educated under the residential school system.

On Tuesday, the Moose Hide Campaign — a non-profit committed to ending violence against Indigenous people — sent Rustad a letter revoking permission for him to wear its pin. Photos show that Rustad has worn the pin since 2016, and he spoke about the Moose Hide Campaign in the legislature in 2015.

On Wednesday, the Nisga’a Lisims government told the BC Conservatives to stop using quotes from Joseph Gosnell, a “respected hereditary leader and former president of our nation.”

In the letter, the Nisga’a Nation said it had never been consulted about the use of Gosnell’s quotes on the Conservative Party’s website.

“Any reference to the late president Gosnell, who dedicated his life to the betterment of the Nisga’a Nation, must not be used without contacting his family,” the letter states. “To use such references without consultation is unjust and demonstrates a complete disregard for his family’s rights and cultural responsibilities.”

Jen St. Denis The Tyee

Jen St. Denis is a reporter with The Tyee covering civic issues. Find her on X @JenStDen.