First Nations leaders demand B.C. candidate retract remarks

B.C.’s three major First Nations political organizations on Oct. 16 demanded that Conservative candidate Mike Hicks retract his statement that First Nations “have to be conquered,” and that his party reject the language, one week before the provincial election.

The First Nations Leadership Council, which represents the BC Assembly of First Nations, the First Nations Summit and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said in a news release that the words invoke colonial violence and dispossession. Hicks is running in Juan de Fuca-Malahat on southern Vancouver Island. Voters go to the polls on Oct. 24.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said First Nations “are not peoples to be conquered, controlled, or subjugated.” Regional Chief Terry Teegee of the BC Assembly of First Nations said there is “no place for racism of this nature in British Columbia’s political discourse.”

Chief Shana Thomas of the First Nations Summit political executive said that if the candidate will not apologize, “he should be withdrawn.”

According to a BC Green Party release and the Indo-Canadian Voice, Hicks made the remark at an all-candidates debate in Mill Bay. The Green release quotes him as saying “The First Nations have to be conquered,” and adding, after the moderator called time, “In law, we have to conquer or sign a treaty with the First Nations.” The Chilliwack Progress reported the debate took place on Oct. 9.

Hicks told the Progress his words were misconstrued because a moderator cut him off mid-sentence. He said he meant that, under the law as he understands it, treaties must be negotiated where a First Nation has not been conquered, and that he supports negotiating treaties. He said he is “devastated” by the criticism.

The Green release and the Indo-Canadian Voice report that Hicks later called his words “inartful” and apologized. Green candidate David Evans, who attended the debate, said that was not enough and that Hicks “shouldn’t be representing this riding.”

NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse said Hicks’s explanations “miss the point” and that the word “conquered” carries “a long and painful history.” Green Leader Emily Lowan called on Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson to remove Hicks from the slate, saying, “This isn’t one bad moment. It’s a pattern.”

As of the most recent reports, Hicks had not been removed as a candidate. None of the sources reviewed by Canada News Media included a response from Doerkson or the B.C. Conservatives, and this story is developing.

The riding has been here before. The Greens and the Indo-Canadian Voice noted that in 2024, then-leader John Rustad removed Conservative candidate Marina Sapozhnikov in the same riding over comments about Indigenous peoples. Lajeunesse, the NDP candidate, won that race by 145 votes, according to the Progress, so the margin this time could again be thin.

The legal point at the centre of Hicks’s explanation is not a fringe one in B.C. Much of the province is not covered by historic treaties, which is why modern treaty negotiations and the province’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act remain live political issues. Canada News Media has reported on how the snap campaign delayed Indigenous rights legislation and on the Oct. 26 meeting between First Nations chiefs, the prime minister and premiers. Voters can find the dates and rules in our guide on how to vote in the B.C. election.

Early voting began Oct. 16, according to the Progress. The question facing the Conservatives is whether they keep a candidate whom the province’s main First Nations bodies, and the Greens in his riding, have asked them to drop.

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Sources: First Nations Leadership Council; via Chilliwack Progress; Indo-Canadian Voice; BC Green Party.