Dallas Brodie's former chief of staff sues her for wrongful termination

Tim Thielmann 

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OneBC leader Dallas Brodie is facing a wrongful termination suit from her former chief of staff, just days after it was announced a recall campaign against her in the riding of Vancouver–Quilchena had failed.

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Tim Thielmann is a lawyer and former B.C. Conservative candidate in the riding of Victoria–Beacon Hill who served as Brodie’s chief of staff after she was booted from the Conservative caucus in March of 2025 over comments about residential schools.

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He was dismissed by Brodie in December after a dispute over a staffer whom Brodie wanted to fire over accusations of racist and antisemitic posts on social media.

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In a lawsuit filed with the B.C. Supreme Court in Victoria on July 23, Thielmann alleges that Brodie fired him and her director of strategic operations, Paul Ratchford, “without notice or explanation” and that she then went on to disclose the dismissals to media alongside “false allegations suggesting that the plaintiff had engaged in improper or unauthorized conduct.”

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This included, alleges the court filing, Brodie and her communications director, Wyatt Claypool, making comments that Thielmann had engaged in “bullying, disloyalty and conspiratorial sabotage.”

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It also alleges Brodie associated Thielmann’s dismissal with her “purported opposition to ‘neo-Nazi’ and ‘antisemitic’ ideologies” with the knowledge that this would “falsely brand the plaintiff as a sympathizer of racist, hateful, or extremist ideologies, and be likely to influence members of the public to hate the plaintiff.”

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None of the allegations have been proven in court and Brodie has not filed a response.

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Thielmann said in an interview Wednesday that he feels like he has suffered reputational damage because of Brodie’s comments about him and is seeking damages above and beyond the $10,000 he says he is owed as severance as part of his contract.

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He said he has been trying to resolve the issue of outstanding pay for seven months but now feels that a lawsuit is his only recourse.

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“I’ve waited a long time to try to resolve that matter with her directly, and you know that just hasn’t been fruitful. So I was left with no choice but to seek to recover those funds, and to clear my name, and to hold her accountable in court,” said Thielmann.

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The dispute over the fired staffer led to the break up of Brodie’s OneBC party, which she had formed in June of 2025, with Thielmann and Ratchford leaving the party along with Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong after initially trying to oust Brodie as party leader.

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After 10 days of negotiations, Brodie was given back the party name, although she no longer serves as the leader of a registered party in the legislature.