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Surrey City Centre Candidates Differ Over Calls to Remove Conservative Campaign Director
10-14-2026
The controversy over social-media posts described as anti-Islamic has put Surrey City Centre candidates Amna Shah of the BC NDP and Zeeshan Wahla of the BC Conservatives on opposing sides of a debate about political accountability and the treatment of Muslim communities.
Shah has called for Conservative campaign director Katy Merrifield to be removed from her role, arguing that the party must respond consistently when discriminatory or hateful content comes to light.
In a statement issued October 11, Shah criticized Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson for what she described as a double standard. She contrasted the party’s response to racist social-media posts attributed to former candidate Joachim Agou with its handling of the Merrifield controversy.
Shah also criticized Wahla, her Conservative opponent in Surrey City Centre, for defending Merrifield’s continued role rather than calling for her removal.
“People in Surrey deserve representatives who fight for us—not defend their party’s hate,” Shah said in the statement.[bcndp]
Wahla’s response
Wahla has publicly rejected Merrifield’s language while opposing calls for her removal. In a statement reported by The Canadian Press on October 10, he said: “I want to be clear that the language used in Ms. Merrifield’s original post from several months ago was unacceptable.” He added that her reaction was “informed by her past sexual trauma.”
He argued that the cases involving Merrifield and Agou were different. According to CBC News, Wahla described Agou’s posts as “inciting violence” and Merrifield’s as “reacting to violence.” CBC reported that the Conservative Party provided Wahla’s statement in response to a request for comment.
Wahla also accused BC NDP Leader David Eby of political opportunism, saying: “Now, he’s trying to remove our campaign manager because we are winning and he is losing.” That is his campaign’s characterization of the dispute, not an independently established assessment of the parties’ electoral standing.
Positions remain unresolved
The dispute is not simply whether Wahla supports Merrifield’s words—he has said he does not—but whether her explanation and removal of the post are sufficient, and whether her case should be treated differently from Agou’s.
With the provincial election approaching, voters in Surrey City Centre have an opportunity to ask both candidates how they would address anti-Muslim discrimination, support religious inclusion and ensure that concerns raised by community organizations receive a clear response.
The issue is not only what candidates say about this particular controversy, but what principles they would apply when any community faces discrimination.
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