OneBC says it’s found a new Kamloops venue for a planned weekend gathering.

It comes after a City-imposed deadline of Thursday at noon came to pass, with the Party not meeting the deadline to make a sizeable deposit payment to secure the Sandman Centre as a venue for a weekend political event.

Firebrand MLA Dallas Brodie had intended to use the Lounge at the Sandman Centre as a location for a Sunday evening event from 6pm to 8pm to speak to OneBC supporters.

However, the initial fee of just under $600 for the rental would balloon to over $8,000 in up-front fees, thanks to $7,729.42 in additional money being requested by the City of Kamloops for policing and security fees.

The City had given OneBC until noon Thursday to come up with that deposit, or lose its hold on the Sandman Centre.

“The City did issue a facility use permit to OneBC for their event planned for Sunday, June 7th,” noted the City of Kamloops’ acting CAO Jenn Fretz in conversation with Radio NL after the City withdrew that same permit on Thursday.

“That permit included specific conditions that are required to meet safety requirements for the event,” noted Fretz, who is filling in for CAO Byron McCorkell this week. “One of the conditions is that OneBC would pay for the estimated costs of the security measures. Those were put into place in consultation with the City and the RCMP.”

“That was all signed-off on by OneBC,” added Fretz.

OneBC leader Dallas Brodie tells Radio NL that while they have identified a location in Kamloops to hold their event, they are still somewhat hesitant to disclose where it is.

“I think what we’ve found, though, is that as soon as we announce a place, people who don’t like me will phone and harangue people until they scare them away from doing it.  This has been our experience so far,” said Brodie in conversation with Radio NL on Thursday.  “So we try and limit the amount of abuse that the venues take. And that seems to work if we just leave it as late as possible.”

Despite the City of Kamloops saying its decision to pull OneBC’s permit for the Sandman Centre, Brodie argues there is likely some politics behind the move as well.

“There are people in other parties who say things that I find to be offensive, crazy…things that I don’t like, but I would fight for their right to say them,” argued Brodie. “I don’t think public facilities should start limiting people based on their viewpoints.”

Sunday’s original session at the Sandman Centre which is being billed as a chance to ask Brodie questions as part of a Q&A session.

The event has also been described as a chance for people to learn more about OneBC’s policy platform, as well as issues surrounding the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People’s Act, or DRIPA, private property and Crown land, on top of what the Party sees as the future in Kamloops — which it describes as a “backbone” community in BC.

The City of Kamloops insists the cancellation of the permit for the Sandman Centre is solely based around not meeting the requirements of the permit itself, with acting CAO Fretz says OneBC is not being blacklisted.

“If they wanted to apply for another event, we would have similar requirements,” noted Fretz.  “If they met the requirements, we would be certainly be issuing them the permit.”

A previous stop-over by Brodie in Kamloops in November saw her and a handful of other supporters descend on Thompson Rivers University to field questions from the crowd about her contention that Tk’emlups has damaged Canada’s international reputation by declaring the possible graves of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site.

Along with Brodie on that day was a controversial lecturer who lost her tenure at her former university for “Residential School Denialism,” as well as a small film crew.

Brodie would later use the more inflammatory interactions with Tk’emlups supporters and others who don’t agree with her position to round out a documentary attributed to the OneBC Caucus which would end up on YouTube called “Making a Killing.”

In that film, Brodie argues that reconciliation in Canada has become a “one billion dollar a year industry” perpetuated by claims of genocide at Residential Schools across Canada.

It was her position on this issue which would see her kicked out of the BC Conservative Caucus by then-leader John Rustad.

Brodie would later form OneBC as a stand-alone political party with Coldstream-area MLA Tara Armstrong, which held official party standing in the Legislature until Armstrong and Brodie split in a dispute over the treatment of a OneBC Party staffer.