BC Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson removed Joachim Agou as the party’s Victoria-Beacon Hill candidate after complaints over hateful social media posts.
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BC Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson has expelled Joachim Agou as the Conservative candidate for Victoria-Beacon Hill following public attention to past social media posts, according to a statement from Doerkson.
Doerkson’s statement said there was “no excuse for this” and that he would not tolerate it, adding that the Victoria-Beacon Hill candidate was “no longer a Conservative candidate” and would not serve in the party’s caucus if elected.
The expulsion was announced after the BC NDP raised the issue and shared material alleging Agou had posted a meme disparaging Pakistani people and had suggested a driver who hit a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters in Switzerland last year should have backed up and driven over them again.
During a news conference where Doerkson announced his $1,000 income tax refund policy, he was confronted with questions about the comments and said he had “not seen these posts or these allegations,” adding that he would be “looking into them the second” he left the podium.
About 90 minutes later, Doerkson’s statement was released confirming that Agou was fired as the party’s candidate for Victoria-Beacon Hill.
The BC NDP responded online, with Amna Shah posting that the posts reflected “horrific racism.”
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