Eby calls on B.C. Conservatives to fire campaign director over anti-Islam posts

COURTENAY · B.C. NDP Leader David Eby demanded on Saturday that interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson fire his party's campaign director for social media posts targeting Islam. Eby made the call at a campaign event in Courtenay, following the Conservatives' recent dismissal of a candidate for offensive remarks about Muslims. The campaign director, Katy Merrifield, wrote a post on X in June that included an expletive before the word Islam and urged people to defend "Western civilization." In another post, she described Islam as an "abhorrent ideology" that needs to be expelled. The posts were a reaction to a privately funded United Kingdom report titled "Rape Gang Inquiry."

Eby characterized Merrifield's comments as "so hateful, directed to a very specific religious community in our province." He argued that if the campaign director of a major party can target Muslims, then "no community in this province is safe." The NDP leader said Doerkson's decision on whether to remove Merrifield would reveal his principles. "Either he removes her, or he very clearly would only remove a candidate where they didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning," Eby said. The Conservatives had previously dropped candidate Joachim Agou for comments about Muslims, a move Eby referenced.

Merrifield, who is not a candidate, is a former communications head for federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. She addressed the controversy in a social media post on Friday, explaining her reaction was informed by her experience as a rape survivor. She said reading accounts of child sexual abuse in the U.K. report left her "heartbroken, horrified, and angry." "I took down my original post within hours because my anger was directed at the extremism used to justify these horrific crimes, not at Muslims or their faith," Merrifield wrote. She added that she abhors those who commit violence justified by an extreme ideology.

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The National Council of Canadian Muslims said it was deeply hurt by Merrifield's statements and a pattern of subsequent posts it views as Islamophobic. The council stated on X that Merrifield did not apologize for her comment or acknowledge the pain it caused. "There is no room for hate in any area of Canadian politics," the council said. It noted a significant rise in Islamophobia in British Columbia, citing incidents of vehicles driven at people, attacks on imams and mosque vandalism. According to Statistics Canada, police-reported hate crimes against Muslims in Canada increased by about 173 per cent from 2020 to 2024.

CentreBC Leader Elenore Sturko criticized the Conservatives in a video posted on Friday. She said it was revealing that problematic posts from a campaign team member emerged just a day after the party fired a candidate for online racism. "It’s the same old people and the same old Conservative party," Sturko said. She added that if Doerkson "can’t stand up for all British Columbians," he should not seek to be premier. The National Council of Canadian Muslims said it would engage in good-faith talks with the Conservatives but insisted Islamophobia must be addressed. British Columbians will vote in the provincial election on Oct. 24.

With files from The Canadian Press, The Globe and Mail and CBC News