All three candidates for the North Island were present for a candidates meeting at the Campbell River Seniors Centre on Oct. 3.
Dr. Anna Kindy (Conservative Party of B.C.), Nic Dedeluk (Green Party of B.C.) and Michele Babchuck (BC NDP) were there to address specific questions regarding the North Island's senior population with questions focusing on housing, healthcare, and the justice system.
Candidates were asked questions submitted to the moderator, Stirling Campbell, in advance. Afterwards, attendees could come up, take the microphone, and ask more questions.
Then, candidates had two minutes to summarize their political positions.
One of the questions targeted Donald Trump's proposal to use B.C.'s water to help alleviate California's water shortages and asked what the candidates and their parties would do to protect the province's water.
"I think we should always think B.C. first," says Kindy. "We need to protect our resources. We need to protect our workers... It's about keeping it for us, especially in times of climate change. We want to become self-efficient, we want to make sure that we have enough water, we want to make sure we produce enough resources, and we need to support our farming communities. So I would always argue B.C. first."
Babchuk called water sacred. She talked about climate change and weather events that are happening at a faster rate than before. She said the BC NDP is taking it seriously, and another party was not, aiming at the Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad.
"We've listened to John Rustad say over and over that he doesn't believe. He believes climate science is a lie, and he believes that we should not be fighting climate change," she says.
Fact Check: true but needs additional context - Rustad told CBC's Catherine Cullen that "Climate change is real... It is not a crisis. It is not an existential threat. It is something that's real." He also told the Globe and Mail in July that burning fossil fuels causes climate change is "false."
Dedeluk mentioned the Water Protection Act, which prohibits the large-scale diversion of provincial watersheds outside the province's boundaries.
According to Dedeluk, the Green Party is committed to "safeguarding our water security and empowering local communities to take the lead and invest in natural infrastructure such as protecting aquafers and restoring wetlands."
Fact Check: additional context - Canada has a pact with the United States (the Columbia River Treaty, signed in 1961 by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and President Dwight Eisenhower), which regulates how much water flows across the border and its use. The treaty, which oversaw the development of three dams in British Columbia (Duncan Dam, Mica Dam, Keenleyside Dam) and one in Montana (Libby Dam), has no termination date but did include an option anytime after 60 years that either country can terminate the treaty with ten years notice and cancel most of the treaty provisions, but some would continue.
Another question concerned vaccinations and whether the elected government would bring medical professionals who refused vaccinations back into the fold.
The COVID-19 vaccine mandate was lifted for healthcare workers in July.
Babchuk says the vaccine saved thousands of lives before mentioning medical professionals were already rejoining the workforce.
"I am more concerned about the uneducated attacks on Dr. Bonnie Henry, our chief medical officer. Dr. Bonnie Henry has been just a stellar (and) strong public servant to us, and I am concerned about Mr. Rustad's promise to fire her if he becomes Premier."
She mentioned that she heard from prospective voters on Quadra Island that Kindy told them she agreed with Rustad's promise at a meeting. She asked her why she would fire Henry.
Before answering, Kindy said she was vaccinated but believes in informed consent, which is when a healthcare provider must educate their patient about the risks, benefits, and alternatives of a given procedure or intervention.
As for the unvaccinated doctors and nurses, Kindy says, "The rest of the world had moved on and rehired the unvaccinated, especially in the view of the fact that we lack medical personnel. We lack nurses. We lack doctors. And we were the last jurisdiction worldwide that dropped this mandate. That was not science, that was ideology."
Kindy also answered Babchuk's question.
"The reason I say Bonnie Henry needs to be fired... there's been over 12,000 young men and boys that have overdosed since 2017, there have been over 3,000 women that have overdosed since 2017. And Bonnie Henry wanted to put illegal, illicit substances on the shelves for people to get."
Fact Check: misleading - Dr. Henry did call for an end to the prohibition on hard drugs in July. In her July 9 report on the overdose crisis, she says the prohibition causes people to rely on unregulated, toxic drugs, killing seven people per day in B.C. on average. Henry says a safer, regulated alternative(s) could be successful due to a significant number of overdoses being unrelated to substance-use disorders. The B.C. NDP's Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside rejected the idea. However, under Henry's plan, illegal or illicit substances would not be put on shelves but prescribed by medical professionals to help treat substance use disorder by meeting the immediate needs of people who use drugs, while reducing the risk of overdosing by using unregulated drugs and providing a connection to health and social services.
An audience member asked about Kindy saying she would put people in schools to make sure children were reading "proper" books. The audience member likened it to the United States banning Romeo and Juliet and others.
"We have school board trustees that look after this, so if you plan on doing this if you win, what qualifications are there that these people would go in and check the books in our school system and say you can read this and you can't read that?" inquired the audience member.
Kindy says she believes books should be age-appropriate and that she was shown books of kids engaging in oral sex. She did not name the book.
"These are books that were brought to the legislature, and you know that, and they were shown, and they were pornographic," she says. "If this was my kid, and this was in elementary school, and that book was there, I would not want it there. Who's to decide? It's not up to me. I think there are professionals that need to be inputted in terms of whether books can stay or not, but pornographic books should not be in elementary school."
Babchuk said she was there at the legislature, "When MLA Bruce Banman (for Abbotsford South) went on his diatribe, his foul mouth diatribe, as kids were sitting in the gallery above him, talking about censorship in school and inappropriate book. We already have the people in the school system. We have teachers, educators, and administrators who are putting the correct books in the correct libraries for the correct age for those children. It is censorship. He's also talked about taking out access to books that relate to climate change. This is just the opening of that rabbit hole, and that shouldn't be happening."
Dedeluk says she has trust in teachers.
"They know our children, they know the challenges they face at home, and they know what's appropriate to teach our children. I am a biologist and not a teacher, and am I going to leave those in the hands of those who do."
Another audience member brought up the topic of vaccinations, asking the candidates if they even knew what was in the vaccine and the implications and reactions of the vaccine in some people.
Babchuk, again, said the vaccine saved countless lives, which outweighs the amount of people living with side effects from taking it.
Fact Check: true - According to the federal government, out of 105,016,456 doses administered in Canada up to and including Dec. 3, 2023, there were 58,712 (0.056 per cent) reports of an adverse reaction and 11,702 (0.011 per cent) of those were reported as serious.
Babchuk mentioned how she is concerned about a lot of conspiracy theories popping up around the vaccine and the pandemic, including Rustad allowing Conservative Party members to say whatever they like, such as Chris Sankey, an MLA candidate for the North Coast-Haida Gawii riding, who claimed the COVID-19 vaccine causes AIDS.
Fact Check: false - It doesn't. Sankey said this on X, formerly Twitter, on Oct. 4. 2023
Babchuk asked Kindy, as a doctor, if she agreed with Sankey and other people who spout harmful beliefs around COVID-19 and vaccines, and if she doesn't agree, why does she not shut them down?
Kindy ignored her question.
Election Day is on Oct. 19.
