{"id":10765,"date":"2025-10-02T02:38:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T06:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10765"},"modified":"2025-10-02T02:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T06:38:12","slug":"gutless-b-c-conservatives-fire-pregnant-lindsey-shepherd-for-criticizing-orange-survivor-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10765","title":{"rendered":"Gutless B.C. Conservatives Fire Pregnant Lindsey Shepherd For Criticizing Orange &#8220;Survivor&#8221; Flag"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">B.C. Conservative staffer fired after comments on orange shirts, flag<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lindsay Shepherd had called Survivors&#8217; flag a &#8216;disgrace&#8217; online, leading to widespread condemnation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.7432302.1736974553!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/square_1180\/katie-derosa.jpg?im=Resize%3D114\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/author\/katie-derosa-1.7220024\">Katie DeRosa<\/a>, <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/author\/akshay-kulkarni-1.6031235\">Akshay Kulkarni<\/a> \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Oct 01, 2025 8:41 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.7648920.1759370846!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/16x9_1180\/survivors-flag.jpg?im=\" alt=\"An orange flag with black characters on it.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The orange Survivors&#8217; flag that was raised at the B.C. Legislature on Sept. 25, 2025. (B.C. Legislature\/X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Social Sharing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a>X<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a>n<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A B.C. Conservative Party staffer who called the orange&nbsp;Survivors&#8217; flag \u2014&nbsp;which honours residential school survivors \u2014&nbsp;a &#8220;disgrace&#8221; and a &#8220;fake flag&#8221; on social media has been fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lindsay Shepherd, who had worked as a communications officer for the B.C. Conservative caucus, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/bc-conservative-staffer-comments-orange-shirt-lindsay-shepherd-1.7646721\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">faced widespread criticism<\/a>&nbsp;after her posts on the social media platform X late last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last Thursday, several NDP, Conservative and Green MLAs raised the Survivors&#8217; flag on the front steps of the legislature in Victoria, ahead of&nbsp;National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next day, Shepherd&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/reah4burnaby\/status\/1971637883078680917\">wrote on social media<\/a>: &#8220;The Orange Shirt and the Orange Flag perpetuate untruths about Canadian history, such as the grandest lie of all that 215 children&#8217;s graves were unearthed in Kamloops.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It is a disgrace that this fake flag flies in front of the provincial parliament buildings, and it is a disgrace to see the shirt of lies framed prominently and permanently beside the coat of arms so that locals and tourists cannot view our insignia without having their eye drawn and redirected to the Orange shirt,&#8221; the post continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.7646945.1759365572!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_1180\/survivors-flag-tweet.jpg?im=\" alt=\"A tweet message credited to Lindsay Shepherd.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A screengrab sent out by the B.C. NDP shows a tweet by B.C. Conservative Party staffer Lindsay Shepherd on the raising of the Survivors flag outside the B.C. Legislature Buildings on Sept. 25, 2025. (Screengrab\/B.C. NDP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Shepherd deleted the post shortly after it was posted, but a screengrab was shared by Rohini Arora, NDP MLA for Burnaby East.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arora&nbsp;said the Conservative caucus did the right thing in firing Shepherd, and credited Conservative MLAs &#8220;who stand up to bigotry inside their party.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Far-right extremism is tolerated and even welcomed in the B.C. Conservatives &#8211; until it becomes public,&#8221; she said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/bc-conservative-staffer-comments-orange-shirt-lindsay-shepherd-1.7646721\">UBCIC calls for firing of B.C. Conservative staffer after comments on orange shirts, flag<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>On Wednesday, Shepherd <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NewWorldHominin\/status\/1973494197979414596\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said on X<\/a> that B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad had fired her because of the social media post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I am a mother of two young children, and I am 32 weeks pregnant &#8212; I was about to go on maternity leave,&#8221; she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I had been an elected board member with the party since 2022,&#8221; she added. &#8220;It&#8217;s very sad that it ended up this way.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CBC News has reached out to the B.C. Conservative Party for a comment on this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Toxic behaviour&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, had urged Rustad&nbsp;to fire&nbsp;Shepherd over the comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s shocking, it&#8217;s absolutely disgusting. It&#8217;s astonishing that there can be that level of ignorance in this modern day,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Residential school denial&nbsp;is a terrible, racist sickness that is given public expression with impunity in this province and in this country.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.7648835.1759361757!\/cantoImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_1180\/adam-olsen-orange-shirt.jpg?im=\" alt=\"A man wearing an orange sweater is seen with a crowd behind him.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Former Green Party MLA Adam Olsen said he felt for his relatives who had to have their history questioned. (Michael McArthur\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Former B.C. Green MLA&nbsp;Adam Olsen, a negotiator for the Tsartlip First Nation, called the comments &#8220;vile.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;These kinds of attacks on the true history of our province is really troubling. It&#8217;s really toxic behaviour,&#8221; Olsen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I feel for all our relatives who have the confront these kind of messages and have their entire history questioned in such a mean-spirited way.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.7646939.1759187199!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_1180\/survivors-flag-raised.jpg?im=\" alt=\"Three people standing beside a flagpole prepare to raise an orange flag.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Survivors&#8217; flag is raised outside the B.C. Legislature buildings in Victoria on Sept. 28, 2025. A Tory staffer who called the flag a disgrace has now been fired. (Government of B.C.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In May of 2021, the&nbsp;Tk&#8217;eml\u00faps te Secw\u00e9pemc First Nation shared that preliminary findings from a ground-penetrating radar survey found some 200 potential unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That announcement was the beginning of a nationwide movement&nbsp;as First Nations across the country began their own searches of residential school sites and many non-Indigenous Canadians began to comprehend the significance of the harms perpetrated at those institutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>B.C. Conservative staffer fired after comments on orange shirts, flag Lindsay Shepherd had called Survivors&#8217; flag a &#8216;disgrace&#8217; online, leading to widespread condemnation Katie DeRosa, Akshay Kulkarni \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Oct 01, 2025 8:41 PM EDT | Last &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10765\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4757,1185,6080],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10766,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10765\/revisions\/10766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}