Shucking Oysters: The Ugly
By Alex Allen
We are living in a very nasty world right now. Especially the political one. Globally, we are seeing an alarming shift towards extreme right-wing parties and more and more intolerance of anything that has a hint of humanity. The sheer ugliness is breathtaking. How have we become so numb to this tribal pack of idiots with as much boundaries as preschoolers high on Cocoa Puffs?
Let’s zoom in on the bucolic province of British Columbia. As I write these words, the election recount is still in motion. No matter which party wins, UBC political scientist Max Cameron warns us that the next few years will be divisive, polarizing, and rocky. Cool. It still amazes me how the Conservatives came from nothing to something. And what amazes me more is how cerebral-challenged the candidates are.
Conservative candidate, Bryan Breguet, who ran in the Vancouver-Langara riding asserted that high rates of Indigenous people in prisons could be because they “commit more crimes. Like Black people in the US.” Jody Toor, who ran in the Langley-Willowbrook riding, presented herself as an MD despite not having medical credentials. Chris Sankey, the North Coast-Haida Gwaii candidate, allegedly said that COVID-19 vaccines caused AIDS.
The good thing about social media is that you can run but you can’t hide. What we are seeing today, however, is that it doesn’t matter what they find in your closet. You can say or do anything outrageous. Like a good Christian, all you have to do is apologize and everything will be right again. As a small-a agnostic, sorry, contriteness is not a virtue.
Brent Chapman, the newly minted Conservative candidate in Surrey South, had to apologize for comments he made about Palestinians. “They are all little inbred walking, talking, breathing time bombs,” he wrote on Facebook in 2015. After this nugget was shared in the news, “born-again” Chapman said, “The language I used and the sentiments I expressed at that time towards Palestinians and members of the Islamic faith were completely unacceptable. They do not reflect who I am today or the respect and admiration I hold for the Palestinian and Muslim communities.”
Instead of asking Chapman to step down, Rustad glibly said: “People sometimes make mistakes. However, I think what is important is actions. So we’ll see. Brent has already reached out, like I say, to the candidates, to people on our team, and apologized. They’ve accepted that apology.” It doesn’t hurt that Chapman is married to Kerry-Lynne Findlay, the federal Conservative MP for South Surrey-White Rock.
Then there’s Rustad. During the television debate, as an example of “the British Columbia that David Eby has created,” he shared solemnly: “I was on my way over here, and on the corner of Robson and Hornby, there was an individual who died, and there were emergency people rushing [around]. This person died from an overdose.” Unfortunately, there was no record of any drug overdose in that neighbourhood. Whoops. A day later, he changed his story to say that he saw an overdose at a different downtown location, and the person survived. Right.
And wait there’s more. In an interview, Marina Sapozhnikov, the Conservative candidate for Juan de Fuca-Malahat, said that before Europeans came to North America, First Nations Peoples “didn’t have any sophisticated laws. They were savages. They fought each other all the time.” When the VIU student challenged the candidate, she replied: “Not 100 per cent savages, maybe 90 per cent savages.” In another interview that day, Sapozhnikov spoke about her concerns with Indigenous history courses taught in BC universities as being one-sided and said that “90 per cent of Indigenous people use drugs.” This woman is a former family doctor.
Rustad said he was “appalled and deeply saddened” by Sapozhnikov’s comments. But once again, he made no indication to have her removed from the party. It’s not about morals, it’s about winning. Thankfully, Sapozhnikov, who has yet to apologize, did not get elected.
So what does it take to get booted out? Rachael Weber, the Conservative candidate for Prince George-Mackenzie, was replaced during the United merger. Her faux-pas? She was caught online sharing her theories that 5G wireless networks are “genocidal weapons” and spread the coronavirus. Prior to that, Rustad fired Denman Islander, Dr. Malthouse, the candidate for Ladysmith-Oceanside, for claiming COVID-19 vaccines give you magnetism, an Esquimalt nurse for claiming vaccines spread COVID-19 and Damon Scrase, a Courtenay candidate for calling LGBTQ people “degenerates.”
“If I have MLAs that promote and support hate, certainly that is not something that I would support as a Conservative party at all,” said Rustad. “I find that quite frankly unacceptable.” Who the hell is doing the vetting? It’s not about their words, it’s about their actions, Rustad tells us. I can’t wait.
A recent study by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln explored how political ideology drives our moral values and choices, not the other way around. One of the authors, Kevin Smith said, “And that’s what we found. It’s not like politics makes bastards of the left or the right, or the young or the old, or the rich or the poor. Politics seems to make bastards of us all.”