B.C. MLA wants statutory holiday to honour Freedom Convoy

B.C. MLA Tara Armstrong is shown in this photo. (Credit: leg.bc.ca)

A B.C. legislator who previously argued Truth and Reconciliation Day should not be recognized as a statutory holiday is proposing a new one that would celebrate the self-described “Freedom Convoy.”

Tara Armstrong, one of two MLAs who formed the right-wing One BC Party after being elected as B.C. Conservatives, introduced the Freedom Convoy Recognition Act Tuesday.

“The bill’s purpose is to recognize the achievements of the Freedom Convoy, one of the largest peaceful demonstrations in Canadian history. It inspired movements across the globe to stand against lockdowns and government overreach,” she said.

If Armstrong’s bill were to pass, the holiday would be marked on March 11 — the day provincial COVID-19 restrictions were eased in 2022.

“Mask mandates were lifted, faith communities could meet again, families were able to visit residents in long-term care,” the bill reads.

The Freedom Convoy paralyzed Ottawa for weeks, and several of its organizers have been convicted of criminal offences.

One BC did not run any candidates in the last provincial election and formed when Dallas Brodie was ousted from the B.C. Conservative caucus. Leader John Rustad said he had no choice but to eject Brodie after she made comments that “publicly mocked and belittled testimony from former residential school students.”

The Freedom Convoy Recognition Act passed first reading, unlike a bill Brodie introduced last month titled the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Statute Repeal Act.

That bill argued Truth and Reconciliation Day should not be a statutory holiday because it “doesn’t deserve to be one.” Armstrong voted in favour of that bill.

In the exchange that followed, Premier David Eby argued both Brodie and Armstrong should be recalled, describing their ideology as “clearly anti-Indigenous, unambiguously racist” and their comments in the legislature as “reprehensible, disgusting, appalling.”

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