Premier Eby supports recall of Okanagan MLA after ‘disgusting’ anti-Indigenous bill fails

Premier David Eby said he supports any effort to recall a controversial Kelowna MLA after she supported a bill to get rid of Truth and Reconciliation Day.

OneBC introduced the bill today, Nov. 20, and it failed to get a first reading. OneBC’s house leader, Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong, gave a speech in the legislature outlining her opposition to First Nations rights.

Eby said the abuse of Indigenous people in B.C. is well documented and Armstrong’s speech is deeply problematic.

“It is reprehensible, disgusting, appalling, I’ve run out of words to describe what they’re trying to do,” he said after Armstrong’s remarks.

The effort to get rid of Truth and Reconciliation day is the latest effort in One BC’s campaign against First Nations.

The party wants to ban land acknowledgements, repeal the effect of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People and has a documentary coming out that denies the history of residential schools.

Eby said that voters in Armstrong’s riding had no idea what she believed in when they voted her into office under the BC Conservative banner.

“Her ideology, which is clearly anti-Indigenous, unambiguously racist. And it is incredibly problematic that we have these voices in our legislature tearing at the fabric of the agreements that we need to be prosperous and successful in this province,” Eby said in the legislature today.

“I fully support any effort to recall these members, because there is not a chance that the people who voted for them had any idea about the agenda they’d be advancing in this house.”

Armstrong ran for office as a BC Conservative, but she didn’t attend all-candidate forums and has declined every interview request from iNFOnews.ca.

OneBC’s party leader Dallas Brodie was the one who introduced the bill today and she said there is nothing to reconcile when it comes to Indigenous people and the Canadian government.

“The idea that we need to reconcile presumes an act of wrongdoing and regret. But we have no regrets, nothing to reconcile for, and no apologies to give. Because we did nothing wrong. Settling and building Canada was great, and we’re proud of it,” she said.

The first reading of the bill was voted down 86 to three.

The premier is the latest in a long line of people to say that Armstrong and Brodie shouldn’t be in office.

An online petition to get Armstrong to step down has more than 1,200 signatures.

Recently Kelowna activist Wilbur Turner told iNFOnews.ca he would consider leading the campaign to get Armstrong recalled.

“It’s (Armstrong’s) focus on punching down minorities. It seems to be all about Indigenous sovereignty… you know, land acknowledgements, about teaching kids in schools our history, our accurate history. It’s about denying the lived experience of survivors of residential schools,” Turner previously told iNFOnews.ca.

A recall petition has never been successful in B.C. since it requires signatures from 40 per cent of voters to be collected in person.

Voters in Armstrong’s riding can start the process to recall her in roughly 150 days.