by Harvey Oberfeld
August 17, 2020
Annamie Paul has terrific credentials as a candidate for the leadership of Canada’s Green Party Oct 4.
She holds a Masters Degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University; a law degree from the University of Ottawa; was director of a conflict prevention nongovernmental organization in Brussels; was an advisor to the International Criminal Court in The Hague; and worked with Canada’s mission to the European Union.
As an environmentalist, Paul acted as an advisor to the Climate Infrastructure Partnership, based in Spain working to put into practice provisions of the Paris Agreement on the Environment; in 2019 ran as the Green Party candidate in Toronto against current Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, tripling the Green vote in the riding; and has also served as the Greens’ International Affairs Critic in the party’s shadow Cabinet.
Paul’s parents immigrated to Canada from the Caribbean, and she witnessed and experienced all the struggles and challenges that went with that, so Paul believes she brings to the party a unique understanding of not only the economic pressures faced by families but also the additional racial/cultural stresses behind Black Lives Matter and Canada’s Indigenous issues.
Yet since deciding to run for leader, Paul has been subjected to vile, demeaning personal attacks and insults INSIDE her own beloved federal GREEN party!
Why?
Because she’s Jewish.
“It’s taken me aback. It wasn’t something I was fully prepared for, to be honest,” Paul told Vancouver’s Jewish Independent newspaper in a recent interview.
“The human rights lawyer and former diplomat who is running to succeed Elizabeth May as leader of the Green Party of Canada has been taken aback by the overt antisemitism thrown at her since it became widely known that she is Jewish”, the newspaper reported.
“You almost can’t believe what you’re seeing,” said the Toronto native, who has worked extensively overseas. “There are very explicit comments questioning my loyalty to Canada because I am Jewish. There are those who have suggested that I am seeking to infiltrate the party on behalf of Zionist elements.”
You can read the entire story in the Independent here: https://www.jewishindependent.ca/category/news/national/.
The only thing more disgusting than this re-occurring anti-Semitism within the federal GREENS is how the party … and Canada’s mainstream media … have stayed so silent and thus, I believe, tolerated this racism!
Here’s what the candidate told the Independent:
“The comments were whispers at first, innuendo, and now they’ve become very explicit,” she said. “If people are allowed to make these comments unchecked, it really emboldens them and that’s definitely what I’ve noticed over the last week or two,” Paul stated.
Just imagine all the stories/coverage Canadians would be be inundated with if public insults and hatred were directed inside any political party at a leadership candidate who was Muslim, Asian, Indigenous or Black!
And this is not the first time anti-Semitism has raised its ugly head inside the federal GREEN Party .
In 2016, when the world was seething with massive human rights violations in China, Russia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Venezuela, Somalia, Sudan and murderous dictators ruled over, starved, tortured, assassinated and confined millions to prisons/internment camps … the federal GREEN party at its annual convention singled out and adopted a resolution condemning and calling for a total boycott of: ONLY Israel.
Disgusting!
I wrote about their racist, anti-Semitic one-sided action back then: http://harveyoberfeld.ca/blog/greens-make-anti-israel-hate-official-policy/.
To their credit, federal leader Elizabeth May and BC leader Andrew Weaver both spoke out against the anti-Semitic action; May even threated to quit, so at a subsequent meeting, the Resolution was overturned.
But clearly the hate and the haters are still there, still vocal and still welcome and thriving inside the federal Greens!
Shame!!!
But where are the Canadian media????
The CBC made one mention of racist slurs being hurled at Paul during an all-candidates meeting July 22: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/green-party-candidate-racist-slurs-1.5659547
That’s all I have been able to find.
Why does such flagrant, open and repeated anti-Semitism within the federal Greens get a pass from the mainstream media? And where are our normally-so-outspoken political, human rights and community leaders?
Would they be so kind if this was happening inside the Conservative Party?
The federal Conservatives, coincidentally, are also in the midst of a leadership campaign … that ends this week.
If a member of any religious or racial minority was running for leadership of the Tory party and was targeted by such racial insults inside the party, I believe Canada’s media would go wild with coverage … especially the CBC. Interviews with politicians, community and religious representatives, human rights officials, racism “experts”, authors and several “panels” of condemnatory pundits..
Why does anti-Semitism get a free pass? Why do the Greens get a free pass?
ANYONE who holds such despicable bigoted views against ANY religion, racial, ethnic group should be drummed out of ANY political party or community organization.
The failure of the GREENS, media, politicians at all levels and community leaders to loudly and publicly denounce and condemn these latest public displays/outbursts of anti-Semitism with the federal Green Party is shameful.
And those who stay silent and/or do nothing are almost as shameful as those who spew their hatred.
Harv Oberfeld
