Conservative candidate Aaron Gunn target of protest rally

First Nation leaders and protesters rallied outside Aaron Gunn’s campaign office in Campbell River Saturday demanding the Conservative Party withdraw his candidacy. 

A crowd of about 150 people waved signs reading “Drop the Gunn” and “We Need Gunn Control,” while First Nations leaders, residential school survivors, educators and community workers voiced their anger over Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s decision not to remove Gunn from the party’s slate. 

Gunn has sparked concern and anger nationwide over a collection of contentious comments and social media posts — particularly those First Nations leaders say promote residential school denialism. Gunn is also drawing fire for insisting there are only two genders, the “gender pay gap doesn’t exist" and systemic racism is a "myth”. An online petition to remove him as a candidate had close to 19,000 signatures as of Monday evening.

The calls for Gunn’s removal are “not a partisan issue,” Wei Wai Kum Chief Chris Roberts told Canada’s National Observer, adding the nation’s elected council hasn’t decided to back any party or candidate to date. 

Most First Nations and many municipal leaders in Gunn’s riding dispute his assertions. His comments the treatment of children in residential schools doesn’t amount to genocide put him at odds with Indigenous leaders and organizations across Canada, as well as a unanimous motion passed by Parliament in 2022, which Poilievre also supported. 

Gunn and Poilievre say the controversy is the result of “misinformation.” Although he has reportedly removed the posts from his X account, Gunn has not apologized for the harm they have caused. 

Gunn dismissed the rally in a social media post accusing his NDP competitor Tanille Johnston of “bussing in activists from Victoria” to protest outside his office, citing a news article that has retracted the allegation as incorrect. 

Neither Gunn nor Poilievre has responded to repeated interview requests or questions from Canada’s National Observer — including whether Gunn, if elected, could properly represent First Nation constituents, who are a big demographic in the riding.   

According to Roberts, Gunn’s remarks risk alienating First Nations communities in the riding that are key players in the regional economy and increasingly involved in resource industries such as forestry and aquaculture, retail and commercial developments and tourism, Roberts said.

The Conservative Party’s focus on First Nations’ economic rights can’t be divorced from the recognition of Indigenous rights, title and consent, Roberts added. 

“There’s no way to separate those things; they are interconnected.” 

The protest involved a coalition of six grassroots community organizations: Stop the Vote Split North Island–Powell River, North Island Network, qathet Anti-Racist Action, Lead Now, the Island Solidarity Committee and 1 Million Voices, said rally MC Jaimie Bryant. 

Speakers at the event spoke about a variety of topics like the personal impacts of residential school, the importance of strategic voting in the riding, and in favour of some candidates, Bryant said. However, the objective of the “Drop the Gunn” campaign is to ensure an “extremist candidate” that threatens Indigenous, women or trans peoples’ rights is not elected in the riding, she said. 

Powell River resident Shelia, who didn’t feel comfortable sharing her last name, said she’d made a half day trip to the Campbell River protest because Aaron Gunn’s comments were “unacceptable” and crossed the “red line” for a candidate.

“Racist words don’t just fade away,” Shelia said. 

“This [protest] is also my commitment to my grandchildren.”