
BC Conservative Candidate Posted Graphic Instructing Critics of Donald Trump on How to ‘Kill Themselves’
Graphic shared by controversial BC Conservative candidate Brent Chapman featured imagery of handguns and violent suicide rhetoric
One of John Rustad’s most controversial BC Conservative candidates shared a graphic featuring imagery of handguns and violent suicide rhetoric following the 2016 election of Donald Trump instructing “liberals” on how to “kill themselves.”
Brent Chapman, the BC Conservative candidate for Surrey South, has been facing widespread calls to resign or be removed as a candidate in response to a series of videos and social media postings touching on hateful and conspiratorial themes.
Chapman first came under scrutiny after the resurfacing of past statements on social media falsely claiming Muslims and Palestinians engage in “inbreeding.” Another video showed Chapman suggesting what happened at residential schools was a “massive fraud” while other social media postings showed he called for a “boycott” of Air Canada to stop airlifts of Syrian refugees.
More recently, BC NDP leader David Eby called on BC Conservative leader John Rustad to “fire” Chapman over past postings showing the candidate questioning several high profile mass shootings, including a white nationalist terrorist attack on a Quebec City mosque and the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre that murdered 20 children – “Look, I really hope no one was actually killed at any of these events,” Chapman wrote. “Something is off.”
In November 2016, in the days following the US Presidential election, Chapman also shared a problematic graphic on Facebook that was posted earlier by a far-right meme account.
The graphic features images of two handguns and the silhouettes of two heads.
“To those liberals who said they would kill themselves if Trump were elected,” the graphic states. “Don’t fuck this up too.”
The graphic suggests “liberals” should aim the gun at the centre of their brain rather than at their chin, an apparent reference to how best to commit suicide.

Source: Brent Chapman (Facebook)
The same graphic was featured in a 2018 news article by Buzzfeed News reporter Craig Silverman about “offensive content” being shared on LinkedIn.
Buzzfeed News noted that a copy of the same “graphic instructing liberals how to kill themselves” was later removed by LinkedIn and the account that shared it was suspended after they contacted the business networking platform for comment.
The graphic has also appeared on the toxic online forum 4Chan alongside neo-Nazi imagery.
It is unclear what nuance, if any, the BC Conservative candidate intended to convey through a message advising his political opponents to “kill themselves.” Chapman has previously expressed support for Donald Trump on social media.
Neither Brent Chapman nor the BC Conservatives responded to requests from PressProgress about whether it disputes anything about the graphic or whether he regrets invoking gun imagery and rhetoric about suicide in a political context.
In a public statement over the weekend, Chapman announced that he “will no longer be commenting on … any other matter related to social media posts from years ago.”
BC Conservative leader John Rustad will not remove Chapman as a candidate and says he will leave the question “up to the people in the ridings” to judge.
In an interview last month sharing “conspiracies” about a United Nations takeover of Canada, Chapman estimated there are “probably 45, maybe 50, ‘Freedom People’ that are running for this party” who share similar views as himself.
Update: Shortly after publication of this article, BC Conservative leader John Rustad defended Brent Chapman’s candidacy and declined to rule out appointing Chapman to his cabinet should the BC Conservatives form government.
“Mr. Chapman has come out with clarification in terms of his statements,” Rustad said at a press conference Tuesday. “It’s up to the people in British Columbia to make a decision” about “whether they elect Brent Chapman to represent Surrey South.”
Asked if he would appoint Chapman to cabinet, Rustad said he would “not speculate one way or the other in terms of people who might go into cabinet,” but added: “I can tell you that we will certainly be looking at all the options that we have.”
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