OneBC Group Removed from UBC Campus While Protesters Gather in the Hundreds

Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie attends a campaign stop in Vancouver, on Oct. 15, 2024. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

A OneBC event at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver this week ended with its leader and several dozen supporters being escorted or carried off the premises by police after being surrounded by protesters in the Aquatic Centre.

The political party led by B.C. MLA Dallas Brodie had shown up for what the University of British Columbia (UBC) called a “protest event” on Jan. 22 in front of its Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre.

Brodie and her supporters, who have challenged accounts of mass unmarked graves at residential schools, were met by a large group of protesters who were shouting and waving signs.

Videos of the crowd posted to social media show the protesters yelling “genocide,” and “OneBC off our campus.”

Brodie said in a social media video that the event generally “went really well,” but said that she was later assaulted several times by a “mob.”

She visited the campus alongside OneBC candidate Jim McMurtry and former Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson, who was shown in a social media video being lifted and carried away by three RCMP officers. The video was shared by McMurtry who said, “Frances was arrested and carried away because she made a mistake—she spoke truthfully about history at a university.”

Social media videos also showed McMurtry being jostled in the crowd of protesters before the placard he was carrying was snatched out of his hands.

The university said in a Jan. 22 statement that Brodie’s group was told to leave when it “became clear that there were potential safety risks.”

“​​As the visitors were not following these instructions, RCMP then facilitated their departure from campus,” UBC said. “The university has established policies and processes it follows when addressing behaviours or actions by community members or visitors where there is imminent risk of harm or a threat to safety, and will follow those processes as appropriate and as circumstances dictate.”

The RCMP said in a press release that its officers were on hand to ensure public safety. It said one person was arrested at the event and was later released without charges, but did not confirm the person arrested was Widdowson.

“During the course of the event, a group in protest of the event was also present. The situation escalated to a point where police intervention became necessary to maintain public safety,” the RCMP said. “As a result, the involved parties were separated to prevent further escalation.”

Brodie, McMurtry, and Widdowson have all publicly questioned a May 2021 announcement that more than 200 suspected unmarked graves of children had been identified by ground-penetrating radar at a former Kamloops residential school. The site has not been excavated to confirm the presence of remains.

Brodie said the Jan. 22 event was being held “to engage in conversations with students and anyone else open to an exchange of opinions.”

“A healthy society cannot exist without truth,” she said in her advertisement of the event. “Truth cannot exist without discussions and debates.”

The UBC Alma Mater Society (AMS) said in a press release prior to the event that Brodie and her supporters were questioning the mass graves while also “minimizing the devastating impact residential school has had on indigenous communities.”

“The AMS denounces all forms of discrimination and marginalization on campus and categorically condemns this event,” the group wrote. “We strongly support the rights of anyone who plans to peacefully protest the event.”

Brodie was not immediately available for comment about being escorted off university property. In her comments on social media, she called for UBC to be defunded for what she described as a failure to uphold “academic freedom and freedom of speech.”

Her post was accompanied by a link to a OneBC petition labelled “Sign our Petition to Defund the Radical Leftist University of British Columbia.”

UBC said in its Jan. 22 statement that it “respects peaceful protest and the ability of all members of the UBC community and the public to engage in the free exchange of ideas and opinions.”

The university said its stance on Truth and Reconciliation is “clear and embedded” in its Indigenous Strategic Plan that outlines eight goals and 43 actions UBC is taking to ensure the implementation of human rights for indigenous people.

Previous Incident

Brodie had previously also visited the University of Victoria campus with Widdowson on Dec. 2, 2025, for what the university said was an unsanctioned event.

Widdowson was arrested by the RCMP while attempting to walk around the university campus wearing a billboard that read “What remains?” She was later released and issued a $115 fine for trespassing.

Brodie said at the time that she and the others went to the campus to explain to students that no bodies have been found at the Kamloops residential school following the claim in 2021 by the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation that ground-penetrating radar had found the remains of 215 children at the site.

The university previously told The Epoch Times that the group arrived on campus with the “intention of speaking publicly” without prior arrangement with the school. The university said in the emailed statement the individuals “were informed that their event was not sanctioned to proceed” and confirmed they were escorted off school grounds by law enforcement.

Brodie’s comments on unmarked graves and residential schools led to her ouster from the B.C. Conservative caucus last March by then-Leader John Rustad. She founded OneBC shortly after.

The Canadian Press and Chandra Philip contributed to this report