A heated all-candidates meeting in Burnaby quickly turned nasty Wednesday night.
Video from the event shows a confrontation at the door between a woman carrying a baby and Burnaby Citizens Association candidate Larry Hayes.
"Why are you pushing me? Why are you pushing me?" the woman can be heard screaming as Hayes tries to leave the room.
"Would you call the police?" the candidate is heard telling someone else.
Mary Cardle was one of the parents in the audience who ended up watching as the first candidates' meeting she'd ever attended turned into a shouting match.
"I think it's shameful that this is what happened," she told CTV News Thursday. "In a way, it was very enlightening, but also very disheartening."
The meeting was supposed to run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., but the BCA says it came to an end earlier than that because of a disruption.
The party said candidates opposed to the province's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum, or SOGI, were involved in the disruption.
"They came in there to provoke. They came in there to agitate," said campaign manager Lori Winstanley.
The BCA said it's standing by Hayes, but the candidate himself is not commenting on what took place.
"He felt he was being mobbed. It was very uncomfortable for him," Winstanley said.
The video was posted online by school board candidate Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, a SOGI opponent.
"It was terrifying and it was a very disconcerting moment," she told CTV.
Cardle said she attended the meeting hoping to learn more about the candidates, but ended up witnessing a lot of “disrespectful” behaviour instead.
"I want to know who I can vote for. I have a daughter who has Down syndrome. She has special needs," Cardle said. "I want to know who is the best person that's going to advocate for my daughter in the school system?"
However, she said the experience hasn’t deterred her, and she'll try again to get those answers at another meeting.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Maria Weisgarber
