The Conservative Party of B.C. has dropped a Denman Island doctor, whose licence was suspended for allegedly signing falsified vaccine and mask exemption forms, as a candidate in Ladysmith-Oceanside.
The party announced Stephen Malthouse’s nomination Wednesday, calling him “a seasoned physician with over four decades of dedicated service.” Within a few hours, his profile was no longer available on the party’s website.
Aisha Estey, B.C. Conservative Party president, said in a social media post that Malthouse is no longer a candidate for the party. She did not provide an explanation for his removal.
“We are a new party, we have grown at a record pace, but some mistakes are bound to happen,” Estey said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we nominated a couple of candidates who ultimately weren’t the right fit for our team. We wish them all the best, and we thank them for putting their name forward.”
Malthouse, a family doctor, has been outspoken against COVID-19 mandates, speaking at rallies against public health measures and in videos.
The person who answered Malthouse’s phone on Thursday said he would not be commenting.
In October 2020, he wrote an open letter to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry alleging masks are “useless and even harmful” against COVID-19 and claimed people were “rarely” becoming ill from the virus.
Speaking at an anti-vaccine event in Kelowna in late 2021, Malthouse claimed the COVID-19 vaccine caused some people to become magnetized, Castanet reported.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. suspended his licence in March 2022.
The public notification for his suspension says the college made an interim order “to protect the public” pending the completion of an investigation. The college’s directory of physicians listed Malthouse’s status as suspended on Thursday.
The college said the decision to suspend Malthouse came after considering evidence regarding allegations he signed vaccine and mask exemption forms that he knew included false statements, gave medical conclusions without any objective medical evidence, provided diagnoses and treatment potentially harmful to patients, and used his status as a doctor to try to circumvent public health orders.
The college found there was a high likelihood Malthouse would repeat his behaviour if his licence was not suspended.
“The panel concluded there would be a real risk of harm to the public if Dr. Malthouse was permitted to continue to practise without restriction,” the college said in its order.
Malthouse appears to be the second Island candidate dropped by the B.C. Conservatives.
The party named Jan Webb as its candidate for Esquimalt-Colwood in an Instagram post on Jan. 1. Her profile is no longer on the party’s website, but the social media post remains online.
Webb worked as a nurse for decades in both hospitals and in the community, with a focus on senior care, the post says.
“She now seeks fresh changes in the medical system, advocating for evidence-based, individualized care with improved treatment access to alleviate suffering and provide more options instead of MAiD,” it says.
The party did not directly respond to questions about Webb on Thursday.
In a since-deleted tweet, Estey said Webb had been removed as a candidate in response to a tweet by Webb advising people to stay away from “those recently injected due to the phenomenon of spike protein shedding. Truth.”
“Webb is a trained nurse, and frankly she should know better than this,” Estey wrote.
