'Abhorrent and racist'

Okanagan Indigenous leaders are calling on the BC Conservative Party to eject a candidate from the party after she called described Indigenous people as “savages” before contact with Europeans.

In an interview with a student journalist on election night, which was then shared with the Vancouver Sun, Juan de Fuca-Malahat BC Conservative candidate Marina Sapozhnikov said that before Europeans arrived in Canada, Indigenous people “didn’t have any sophisticated laws. They were savages. They fought each other all the time.”

When the journalist challenged Sapozhnikov on her statement, she said: “Not 100 per cent savages, maybe 90 per cent savages.”

She went on to say “90 per cent of Indigenous people use drugs” and described Indigenous studies classes in universities as “all lies” and being part of a “woke agenda.”

In a statement on behalf of the Okanagan Nation Alliance, Tribal Chair of the Syilx Okanagan Nation Chief Clarence Louie called on BC Conservative leader John Rustad to remove Sapozhnikov from his party for her “abhorrent and racist comments.”

“These ignorant and hateful comments, which constitute a form of hate speech, have no place in our society,” Louie said. “We call on BC Conservative Leader, John Rustad, to immediately take a clear and strong stand against hate and racism, by removing her from his political party.

“Would-be politicians who hold and espouse racist and backward views, should be immediately disqualified by their party leaders, based on the understanding that such views and comments are hateful and hurtful to Indigenous people, and completely undermine any kind of government-to-government relationship between provincial leaders and the Indigenous Nations on whose land and good graces this province depends.”

Louie says Sapozhnikov's comments on election night “show the true depth of her own ignorance of both history and the contemporary reality of our province.”

“Indigenous Nations are the first peoples and the original rights and title holders of this province, as recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada,” Louie said. “We have been here since time immemorial and we have survived the racist and colonial views and actions of people like Ms. Sapozhnikov.”

Sapozhnikov is currently 106 votes behind the BC NDP’s Dana Lajeunesse in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat riding, with just 185 absentee ballots left to count.

Louie's statement Sunday morning comes following similar condemnation by a member of Sapozhnikov's own party, Kamloops Centre MLA-elect Peter Milobar.

Milobar, who described himself as a “white male that who married into a First Nation family,” called Sapozhnikov's comments “reprehensible” and left him “feeling outraged, and filled with sadness.”

Meanwhile, Rustad said in an emailed statement to the Vancouver Sun that he was appalled by Sapozhnikov’s comments and that they do not reflect the values of his party, but he did not say if she would be removed from the party.