Kelowna-area MLA in hot water over treaty debate remarks

Independent MLA Tara Armstrong is facing calls to retract comments she made in the B.C. legislature Thursday, using language critics say is linked to Nazi ideology during a debate on a First Nations treaty.

Armstrong, the MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream, used the phrase “blood and soil” while speaking during discussion of the K’ómoks First Nation treaty legislation. She described it in relation to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and argued it connects rights to ancestry and land.

The phrase has historic ties to Nazi propaganda and is widely condemned. Her remarks drew immediate criticism from other MLAs in the chamber.

Surrey-Cloverdale Independent MLA Elenore Sturko called the language unacceptable and urged Armstrong to withdraw it, saying it should never be used in the legislature.