{"id":508310,"date":"2026-03-01T23:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508310\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T23:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:30:09","slug":"onebc-townhall-featuring-controversial-activist-draws-crowds-condemnation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508310\/","title":{"rendered":"OneBC townhall featuring controversial activist draws crowds, condemnation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OneBC says more than 600 people showed up at a townhall it held in Vancouver Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The event was led by party leader Dallas Brodie and headlined by Chris Elston, known online as Billboard Chris.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing at the event wearing a sandwich board that said, \u201cChildren Cannot Consent to Puberty Blockers,\u201d Elston has gained attention online for his activism against gender-affirming care for children.<\/p>\n<p>The townhall was billed as an opportunity for people to speak about parental rights, school curricula, and gender ideology.<\/p>\n<p>Brodie and Elston say their ideologies extend past not believing children can consent to transitioning genders; they say they don\u2019t believe transgender people exist at all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo first of all, there\u2019s no such thing as a transgender person,\u201d Elston said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s men and women, boys and girls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brodie says the bodies of children receiving gender affirming care \u201care being mutilated, and their normal progression through puberty is being denied to them by puberty-blocking drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>L, a local teacher who transitioned, came to the townhall to protest. She says a lot of anti-trans rhetoric is based in conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it blows my mind as to what they think is happening in classrooms,\u201d L said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause the simple fact is, if we look at SOGI, for example, what that is, is just teaching students that there are people who might be a little different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The anti-SOGI ideology being discussed at the townhall is concerning to protestors.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"583\" data-id=\"4399063\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/L-protester-1024x583.png\" alt=\"OneBC event protester L.\" class=\"wp-image-4399063\"  \/>OneBC event protester L. (CityNews Image)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is oxygen for them; it gives them space to continue gaining legitimacy,\u201d L said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey get to manufacture consent for whatever their hatreds are, and they\u2019re able to control that narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After intense protests marred a <a href=\"https:\/\/vancouver.citynews.ca\/2026\/01\/22\/vancouver-onebc-escorted-off-ubc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">OneBC event on the UBC campus<\/a> in January, a strong police presence kept things fairly orderly Saturday, but the animosity was still clear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHey hey, ho ho, transphobia has got to go!\u201d protestors chanted.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"536\" data-id=\"4399062\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OneBC-townhall-Feb-28-2026-protesters-1024x536.png\" alt=\"Protesters at a OneBC event in Vancouver Feb. 28, 2026. \" class=\"wp-image-4399062\"  \/>Protesters at a OneBC event in Vancouver Feb. 28, 2026. (CityNews Image)<\/p>\n<p>Some critics are raising questions about whether OneBC is doing more to divide the province than unite it \u2014 something Brodie doesn\u2019t believe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are coming out who feel completely disaffected by the system, because they are constantly being told that what they believe in isn\u2019t true,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>L says her existence isn\u2019t predicated on others\u2019 beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m standing right here. I\u2019m right here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She says she lives a rich life in spite of the hostility she says she sometimes feels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonestly, notwithstanding the fact that there are people who spew hatred, I\u2019m very happy, I\u2019m in a loving marriage, I have a great job, I love teaching,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>But the fact that it is being debated at all deeply concerns her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a really good life. And part of my fear is, I don\u2019t want to lose that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OneBC says more than 600 people showed up at a townhall it held in Vancouver Saturday. The event&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-508310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}