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MAPLE RIDGE, BC – British Columbia’s election campaign was dragged well off course Monday as leaders of both major parties were forced to comment on comparisons of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals to the health measures of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vandalism at the property of a Vancouver billionaire, who erected a large sign critical of BC’s New Democrats, also diverted leaders from their messages.
The controversial comparisons supporting a Nuremberg-like investigation into BC health officials’ COVID-19, and spray paint vandalism at Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s property come as leaders prepare for a televised debate on Tuesday, which n sign of a critical point in the campaign.
NDP Leader David Eby, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau will face each other under the glare of the lights during the only televised debate of the campaign.
Rustad apologized on Monday for his previous comments about the Nuremberg trials and COVID-19 measures that “offended some people.”
“My comments in and around that in any way related to both, I apologize for that,” he said at a news conference in downtown Vancouver. “Certainly that was not my intention in that matter.”
Rustad posted a statement on social media on Sunday to “clarify” his comments after a video surfaced saying his party would “certainly be involved with other jurisdictions.”
Rustad made the comments after being asked in an online meeting in July about where he stood on “Nuremberg 2.0,” referring to an idea that those behind public health measures instituted during the pandemic should have put them to the test.
The BC Conservative leader said in a statement on social media platform X that he “misunderstood the question” about whether he supported “Nuremberg 2.0.”
He said it was “distorting history” to compare pandemic public health measures to Nazi Germany or the Nuremberg trials, which sought accountability for the Holocaust.
He said he made the comments during a conversation with members of the Public Service Workers for Freedom BC group.
Rustad was in Vancouver to lay out his party’s platform around public safety near the site where a man’s hand was broken in an attack last month.
He promised a Conservative government would create a new court to deal with minor crimes and hire more judges, sheriffs and front-line police officers, while also ending the province’s decriminalization of small amounts of some illegal drugs.
Eby called Rustad’s comments “deplorable,” at a news conference in Maple Ridge where he announced plans to build a new school in the community and promised to increase childcare workers and classroom counselors in BC public schools.
“To entertain suggestions that we would put public health officials, doctors and nurses who ran vaccine programs, who responded in the depths of the pandemic, on trial similar to Nazi war criminals, is shameful. It’s strange,” he said. “It’s very unfortunate.”
The issue is the latest in a series of unscripted moments on the campaign trail, which also included erecting a large sign outside Wilson’s home in Vancouver last week, calling the NDP “communist.”
Photos on social media show the sign and gates to Wilson’s $81 million home vandalized with crude graffiti about the athletic apparel founder.
Vancouver Police say they are investigating after receiving a report.
Eby said the sign on Wilson’s property is a symbol of the political divide in this election.
“The sign is on Chip Wilson’s property, it reflects whose side John Rustad is on,” he said. “He’s on Chip Wilson’s side. He is on the side of billionaires and real estate speculators. I’m on the side of the people who are trying to get by who are facing higher costs and are struggling in different ways.”
Eby said the problems people are facing will not be solved with spray paint.
“The problem is solved with votes,” he said.
Eby, at a campaign event in Maple Ridge, promised education plans that include a mental health counselor in every school and an educational assistant for every classroom from kindergarten to Grade 3.
He also said that school childcare would be expanded on the site.
Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau in Victoria said the party would support what she called a successful model of transitional housing being employed in Duncan on Vancouver Island.
He said “The Village” model, which sees people housed in small individual housing units, offers “practical solutions to the homelessness crisis.”
As election day October 19 approaches, early voting will also be available from October 10 to 13 and October 15 to 16.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on October 7, 2024.
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