Rob Shaw: Rustad’s answer to 5G COVID conspiracies? Blame cancel culture
B.C. politicians took great delight Tuesday in dunking on the latest bizarre outburst from the latest bizarre BC Conservative candidate. But it appears leader John Rustad is done with apologizing for the frequent craziness that erupts from his party, blaming the whole thing on “cancel culture” instead.
The latest oddity comes from Rachael Weber, the Conservative candidate for Prince George-Mackenzie, who was caught amplifying online conspiracy theories that 5G wireless networks are “genocidal weapons” and spread the coronavirus.
“Sixty gigahertz has a very distinct impact on none other than oxygen itself,” says one YouTube video Weber posted to her Facebook page, describing a particular wireless frequency in great detail.
“How in the world does this even make sense that we are using it, unless their intentions are something else besides faster speeds?”
Ah yes, the hidden world of global cover-ups, government subterfuge, lizard people and the Illuminati, out to exact their devious agenda of harming the public using invisible rays.
It’s “downright weird,” as BC United MLA Mike Bernier put it Tuesday.
“These conspiracy theorists are the foundation of John Rustad’s party,” Bernier said in a party release, revealing the posts.
“Are people with these views really who you want in government? John Rustad’s party is not a conservative party, it is a conspiracy party.”
Just a few months ago, Rustad might have chosen to fire Weber, in an attempt to prevent the upstart party’s reputation from being smeared by nutbar views.
He did give the boot to a Denman Island doctor who said COVID-19 vaccines give you magnetic powers, an Esquimalt nurse who said COVID-19 vaccines make you infect others, and a Courtenay candidate who called LGBTQ people “degenerates.”
But within hours of the Weber posts becoming public Tuesday, Rustad chose instead to double down in her defence.
“I’m not going to allow cancel culture to take root in this province, I think it’s done too much damage,” he told news outlet CKPG.
“It’s been a significant part of the left wing’s tools in terms of attacking people and going away from the real issues that are out there such as the overdoses we’ve been seeing, safe supply and decriminalization and the damage that’s done.”
Rustad appears emboldened by several months of strong polling for the Conservatives, as well as the steady defections of donors, candidates and organizers from BC United.
The move is risky though, because it assumes the public is willing to trust his party to solve serious issues like the overdose crisis, when it has candidates who hold entirely unserious personal views. Would you have confidence in a minister to oversee the treatment of vulnerable people suffering addictions when they believe 5G signals give people COVID-19? Unlikely.
You could almost see the glee in the eyes of Premier David Eby on Tuesday when he was asked about it.
“I think it would be helpful for him to come out and explain why his candidates believe that cell phone towers cause COVID-19 and are genocidal weapons,” said Eby.
Eby amped up the contrast between Conservative and NDP candidates.
“COVID turns you into a magnet,” he said gesturing with one hand.
“I am a local government official, former journalist, former professional business person,” he added, with the other.
“You can see that we are taking our time, we are putting forward candidates that we are proud of and we’re excited about, and I think John Rustad should explain how it is that consistently he is putting forward candidates that embrace and promote conspiracy theories from the darkest corners of the internet. Because actually, I think that’s his core belief as well.”
At some point, New Democrats are going to have to come up with a better re-election strategy than just pointing to the Conservatives and saying: Those guys are nuts.
But for now, anyway, it works. And the Conservatives are helping, by burning away credibility by defending the indefensible.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
