B.C. Conservative campaign director under fire for anti-Islam posts
The campaign director for the B.C. Conservatives is facing criticism over anti-Islam posts she shared on social media earlier this year, just days after the party fired another candidate over his own offensive posts.
National Council of Canadian Muslims 'deeply hurt' by social media posts from Katy Merrifield
Arden McLeod · CBC News
·
Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
The campaign director for the B.C. Conservatives is facing criticism over anti-Islam posts she shared on social media earlier this year, just days after the party fired another candidate over his own offensive posts.
Campaign director Katy Merrifield posted on X in June in response to a U.K. inquiry about child sexual exploitation: "F--k Islam. Defend Western civilization." The post was later removed.
"We are deeply hurt by the comments made by B.C. Conservative Campaign Director Katy Merrifield ... [and] several subsequent posts that demonstrate a pattern of promoting Islamophobic views," the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) wrote in a post on X Friday.
A screen capture of the post on X from Katy Merrifield from June 17, accessed using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine and blurred by CBC News. Merrifield later removed the post. (@katy_merrifield/X)
This comes after the party dropped Joachim Agou, its candidate for Victoria-Beacon Hill, over offensive social media posts targeting Palestinians and Pakistanis that came to light this week, which the council said made Merrifield's posts especially concerning.
Merrifield, who previously worked as head of communications for federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, is the campaign director for the B.C. Conservative Party and not a candidate.
She acknowledged her past comments in a post Friday, saying they stemmed from her experience as a rape survivor and from feeling "heartbroken, horrified and angry" after reading accounts of sexual abuse involving young girls in the U.K. and the failure of authorities to protect them.
"I took down my original post within hours because my anger was directed at the extremism used to justify these horrific crimes, not at Muslims or their faith," Merrifield wrote.
But the NCCM said "at no point did [Merrifield] apologize for her statement or recognize the pain it caused," adding that she also did not address what it called a pattern of promoting "a range of problematic messages" on social media.
"There is no room for hate in any area of Canadian politics," the NCCM said.
Rise in Islamophobia
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.
In June, a Victoria imam said he was assaulted outside his home by a man who told him to "go back to your country."
National Council of Canadian Muslims CEO Stephen Brown is seen in a file photo. The NCCM says it will engage in 'good-faith' conversations with the B.C. Conservatives, 'but Islamophobia must be addressed.' (Ivanoh Demers/CBC)
"We will engage in good-faith conversation with the B.C. Conservatives about these troubling revelations, but Islamophobia must be addressed," the NCCM wrote.
"This must be a bipartisan commitment."
Criticism and response
B.C. NDP Leader David Eby spoke to reporters Saturday morning from Courtenay, B.C., saying Merrifield’s posts highlighted by the NCCM were "so hateful, directed to a very specific religious community in our province," and deserved consequences.
He said if Muslims practising Islam in B.C. can be targeted by the campaign director of a major political party, then "no community in this province is safe."
"[Doerkson] has to remove her," Eby said.
CBC News asked B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne 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 from several months ago was "unacceptable," but said it was clear her reaction was "informed by her past sexual trauma."
He said the difference between Agou being dropped over his posts and Merrifield’s situation comes down to the former candidate "inciting violence," while Merrifield was "reacting to violence."
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."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Arden McLeod, from Vancouver, is an associate producer with CBC News. He has a passion for community storytelling, local news, and reflecting the values of B.C. He graduated from the British Columbia Institute of Technology's broadcast and online journalism program. You can reach him at Arden.McLeod@cbc.ca.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.