Critics bombard One B.C. MLA Brodie for bill forbidding land acknowledgements

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B.C.’s One B.C. party is being lambasted from all sides of the political spectrum after introducing a bill on Thursday to ban public employees in B.C. from making Indigenous land acknowledgements.

These acknowledgements are generally given at the start of speeches, recognizing the traditional territory on which the remarks are being made.

Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie called these statements an “anthem of a suicidal nation” in her introduction of the bill in the legislature on Oct. 23.

B.C. Conservative house leader Á’a:líya Warbus said the bill “obliterates” free speech, Green Party Leader Emily Lowan called it “abhorrent,” and Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert said he thought it was “gross.”

“It’s what