If Surrey Conservative candidates won’t defend one part of the community, they won’t stand up for anyone in Surrey

SURREY — BC NDP candidate for Surrey City Centre Amna Shah is calling on all 10 Conservative candidates running in Surrey to state today whether they support removing campaign director Katy Merrifield after the BC Muslim Association (BCMA) and the Unified Muslim Associations of BC (UMABC) called for action.

The BCMA called on Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson to remove Merrifield from her campaign role and issue a public apology. UMABC, a coalition of mosques and Islamic organizations, also called for her removal at a press conference this morning.

Doerkson has not publicly announced whether he will remove Merrifield. Conservative Surrey City Centre candidate Zeeshan Wahla has defended her remaining in the role, while the other nine Surrey Conservative candidates have not publicly stated whether they support her removal.

“Mr. Wahla has defended his party’s campaign director instead of standing up for people in his community,” said Shah. “Now the organizations representing the community have made clear that accountability requires removing her from her role and apologizing. Surrey residents deserve to know where their Conservative candidate stands, not the weak silence we have seen from them for the last five days.”

Jessie Sunner, BC NDP candidate for Surrey-Newton and a former human rights lawyer, said the issue affects every community in Surrey.

“An attack on one community is an attack on all of us,” said Sunner. “If Lorne Doerkson and Surrey’s Conservative candidates will not call for accountability when Muslim British Columbians are targeted, people in Surrey cannot count on them to defend any community when it faces hate.”

Shah and Sunner are asking the following candidates to state today whether they support removing Merrifield and issue the apology requested by the BCMA:

• Zeeshan Wahla, Surrey City Centre
• Nicholas Cartmell, Surrey-Cloverdale
• Garry Purewal, Surrey-Fleetwood
• Garry Thind, Surrey-Guildford
• Harj Dhaliwal, Surrey-Newton
• Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal, Surrey North
• Bryan Tepper, Surrey-Panorama
• Jessy Sahota, Surrey-Serpentine River
• Megan Knight, Surrey South
• Trevor Halford, Surrey-White Rock

“Silence is never an excuse when a community is targeted. When the Conservative party tolerates attacks on one faith or community, it puts everyone’s rights and sense of belonging at risk,” Sunner said.

This is not the first time Surrey residents have had reason to question the Conservative party’s commitment to human rights. In February, Lorne Doerkson and Surrey Conservative MLAs Mandeep Dhaliwal, Bryan Tepper and Trevor Halford voted to allow a bill to be introduced that would have repealed B.C.’s Human Rights Code.