B.C. Opposition Leader John Rustad accuses former Conservative MLAs of blackmail

VICTORIA — British Columbia Conservative Leader John Rustad is accusing a group of legislators who split from the party of blackmailing its members and staff in a bid to take over and divide the Opposition.

Rustad has confirmed the authenticity of a letter obtained by The Canadian Press in which he tells the Conservative caucus that their former colleagues and staff are threatening to release “blackmail materials,” including secretly recorded phone conversations and text messages.

“We will not allow ourselves to be lowered by manipulative, dishonest, and malicious actions of people who see fit to, potentially criminally, blackmail others,” Rustad tells the Conservative caucus in the letter. “This is sociopathic behaviour.”

He said in an interview on Monday that the letter was authentic and the party was considering whether to call in the RCMP.

The letter says the targets are being blackmailed to get them to take jobs or contracts with the former Conservatives, or to “do or say certain things” if they want to prevent the materials being leaked.

“From what I have been told, the threat is framed as something like: we will pay you handsomely to join with us, we will damage you if you refuse,” Rustad says in the letter.

Rustad doesn’t name the former Conservatives, but Dallas Brodie, who was ejected from the caucus in March, said in a statement on Monday that the letter consists of “wild lies” and “baseless, false, and defamatory” accusations about her new One BC party, launched with fellow former Conservative Tara Armstrong last week.

She also said Rustad and his team “rigged” the Conservatives’ March annual general meeting that endorsed his “Team Rustad” slate of executive candidates, allegedly stacking the meeting with South Asian supporters paid “to vote the way Mr. Rustad wanted.”

Rustad’s letter denied any wrongdoing at the meeting.

He said in the letter that some in the party were surprised at a large number of South Asian party members at the AGM, and that “individuals” had paid for the whole group’s transport to the Nanaimo meeting.

He said he understood why “people who have not participated in organized political parties before may be surprised by this phenomenon.”

But he said “group-based political organizing occurs quite often in politics and is not unique to the South Asian community.”

“I have been advised by our legal counsel and experts, who were present to scrutinize the voting process that our AGM was 100 per cent in line with this party’s 2024-25 constitution,” he said.

Rustad said in the interview the he could not offer any details about what kinds of jobs were allegedly being offered to the targeted Conservatives. “I wasn’t party to those conversations, so I would be saying it third-hand,” he said.

The letter says one unnamed staffer with the former Conservatives called “multiple individuals in order to explicitly blackmail them.”

Rustad said in the letter that the former colleagues were “trying to sink our party, sour our caucus, and break apart the powerful movement” that Conservatives have built.

Asked about his characterization of their alleged behaviour as sociopathic, Rustad said “certainly, it is not normal.”

Brodie was thrown out of the party over remarks about residential schools, prompting Armstrong and Jordan Kealy to quit the party in sympathy.

Armstrong said she won’t comment beyond the statement Brodie issued, while Kealy, who still sits as an Independent, said he had no involvement in the alleged blackmail.

Brodie’s statement said that there was a “mountain of evidence” demonstrating the rigging of the AGM, “including photographs, emails, audio recordings, detailed written statements and public statements and interviews from various AGM attendees” and “a personal confession by a senior Rustad staff member.”

Brodie, Armstrong and Kealy first came forward with claims about vote-rigging on May 28.

Armstrong said at the time that an unnamed senior member of Rustad’s team told her the party paid about $100,000, using that member’s personal credit card, to transport more than 100 South Asian men to Nanaimo to “rig the election” in favour of Rustad. She did not name the person or offer any other evidence.

Rustad’s letter suggested there was nothing unusual about Conservative riding association funds being used to sponsor delegates to attend the AGM.

“Hundreds of people, the vast majority of whom were Caucasian (not that it should matter), were ultimately sponsored by our caucus members via funds from your Riding Associations — at your specific direction as MLAs,” he told the caucus.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2025.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press