B.C. NDP leader calls for firing of Conservative campaign director over anti-Islam posts
David Eby says the social media comments from Katy Merrifield were hateful and directed at a specific religious community.
COURTENAY — B.C. NDP Leader David Eby is calling on interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson to fire his party's campaign director over social media posts that called Islam an "abhorrent ideology."
Eby, speaking Saturday at a campaign announcement on Vancouver Island, said Doerkson must remove Katy Merrifield for her comments related to a report from the leader of the anti-immigration Restore Britain party.
Eby said Merrifield's posts highlighted by the National Council of Canadian Muslims were so hateful, directed to a very specific religious community in the province.
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Merrifield's post on X in June, which she later removed, placed an expletive in front of the word Islam and called on her audience to defend "Western civilization."
The National Council of Canadian Muslims said it was "deeply hurt" by Merrifield's comments and several subsequent posts that "demonstrate a pattern of promoting Islamophobic views."
"There is no room for hate in any area of Canadian politics," the council said in a post on X Friday.
Merrifield, who previously worked as head of communications for federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, acknowledged her past comments in a post Friday.
She said she took down her original post within hours because her anger was directed "at the extremism used to justify these horrific crimes, not at Muslims or their faith."
She said that as a woman and rape survivor, she was brought to tears reading the privately-funded "Rape Gang Inquiry" report, which she said details sexual abuse of young girls and failure by authorities to protect them.
"I was heartbroken, horrified, and angry," she wrote. "I abhor the people who perpetuated that violence justified by their extreme ideology."
The council said Merrifield did not apologize for her statement or recognize the pain it caused.
Eby's call for Merrifield's removal came after Doerkson fired Conservative candidate Joachim Agou for comments about Muslims, for which Agou has since apologized.
When asked why he is calling for the removal of a person who is not on the ballot, Eby said Doerkson has a chance to show where he stands.
"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," he said.
Victoria-Beacon Hill, where Agou was running, is considered a safe NDP seat.
CBC News asked Doerkson for a statement but did not receive one before publication.
The B.C. Conservative Party replied to a request for comment with a statement from Zeeshan Wahla, its candidate for Surrey City Centre.
Wahla said the language used in Merrifield's original post was "unacceptable," but said it was clear her reaction was "informed by her past sexual trauma."
He said the difference between Agou being dropped and Merrifield's situation comes down to the former candidate "inciting violence," while Merrifield was "reacting to violence."
Wahla said that Eby's call for Merrifield's resignation is a ploy and described Eby's call for a snap election while the Conservative party was in the middle of a leadership change as cynical.
"Now," Wahla said, "he's trying to remove our campaign manager because we are winning and he is losing."
The NCCM said B.C. has seen a significant rise in Islamophobia, pointing to incidents involving vehicles being driven at people, attacks on imams and vandalism at mosques.
Statistics Canada figures show police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims across Canada rose by roughly 173 per cent between 2020 and 2024, from 84 incidents to 229.
CentreBC Leader Elenore Sturko, in a video posted to Instagram Friday, said just a day after the B.C. Conservatives fired a candidate over "racist, deplorable garbage on the internet," past posts from another member of the campaign team had come to light.
"It's the same old people and the same old Conservative party," she said.
Sturko said if Doerkson "can't stand up for all British Columbians," then he should not "stand up and ask to be made premier."
The campaign's only live and televised leaders' debate will take place next Wednesday.
With files from The Canadian Press, The Globe and Mail and CBC News