VICTORIA, British Columbia (LifeSiteNews) — The British Columbia Conservative Party has fired a staff member after she posted a comment disputing the existence of “mass graves” at residential schools.

In an October 1 post on X, BC Conservative Communications Officer Lindsay Shepherd revealed that she was fired from her position after criticizing the residential school “mass graves” narrative in a post on social media.

“Today, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad fired me from my position as Comms Officer with the Conservative Party of BC Caucus. It was because of this tweet,” she wrote, linking to her previous comment.

“I am a mother of two young children, and I am 32 weeks pregnant – I was about to go on maternity leave,” she continued.

Earlier, on September 25, Shepherd had challenged the practice of wearing orange and flying the orange flag to commemorate the alleged deaths at indigenous residential schools. She argued that the flags serve to further divide Canadians and spread false narratives surrounding the schools.

“The Orange Shirt and the Orange Flag perpetuate untruths about Canadian history, such as the grandest lie of all that 215 children’s graves were unearthed in Kamloops,” she wrote.

“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,” Shepherd continued.

Shortly after, Shepherd received a surge of backlash, with many calling for the BC Conservatives to fire her for her comments. Just a few days later, their demands were met and Shepherd was let go from her position.

Importantly, Shepherd’s comments are factually correct, as four years after the claims were first made, there have been no mass graves discovered at residential schools.

In 2021, Liberal-funded mainstream media began promoting inflammatory and dubious claims that hundreds of children were buried and disregarded by Catholic priests and nuns who ran the once-mandatory residential schools.

Following claims blaming the deaths on the Catholic clergy who ran the schools, over 100 churches have been burned or vandalized across Canada in apparent retribution.

Canada’s residential school system was a structure of boarding schools funded by the Canadian government and run by both the Catholic Church and other churches that were open from the late 19th century until the last school closed in 1996.

While some children did tragically die at the boarding schools, evidence revealed that many of the children died as a result of unsanitary conditions due to underfunding by the federal government, not the Catholic Church.

Additionally, Shepherd’s dismissal comes after internal emails revealed that federal workers questioned the residential school narrative as early as 2023 despite downplaying concerns of Canadians who were suspicious of the media’s claims.

In fact, after four years of not finding the alleged graves, the Canadian government has quietly backtracked on its claims, refusing to publicly acknowledge its mistake.

To respectfully voice concerns to the BC Conservative Party, please contact:

Conservative Party Leader John Rustad

Email: [email protected]