What do the recent developments in the federal Green party tell us?
It would appear as though their leader, Annamie Paul, is holding on to her position, at least for the time being. On the evening of June 15, the party’s federal council met for almost four hours. It did so in the wake of the defection of Green Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin to the federal Liberal party. Her defection reduced the federal Green party caucus by one-third, from three MPs to two.
The party’s federal council decided for the time being not to vote non-confidence in Ms. Paul, which would have set the wheels in motion for a vote at a general Green party membership meeting on whether or not to keep Ms. Paul as their leader. Instead, the council gave Ms. Paul an ultimatum, adopting a motion calling on her to take a number of actions, including holding a joint press conference with Green Nanaimo MP Paul Manly to explicitly support the Green Party caucus. If she refuses, the council pledges that a vote of non-confidence in the leader will take place on July 20, 2021.
To put all of the above in context, some background is necessary.
Ms. Paul has been very timid in her call for justice in the Middle East, reluctant to call out Israel for any of the terrible crimes it has committed against Palestinians. To make matters worse, her former senior aide, Noah Zatzman, issued a blistering attack on Facebook, charging unspecified Green MPs with the crime of speaking up for human rights in the Middle East and pledging to defeat them. Mr. Zatzman resorted to the totally atrocious allegation used by extremist defenders of the apartheid state of Israel against anyone who dares to criticize Israel – antisemitism. Fortunately, Mr. Zatzman was subsequently shown the door and no longer works in Ms. Paul’s office.
After digesting all of the above, I came to the conclusion that the takeaway is not that Ms. Paul seems to be safe in her position for the time being. For me, the much bigger takeaway is that the tide may finally be shifting – less public support for the apartheid state of Israel and more public support for the true victims in the Middle East, the stateless Palestinians. Absent the shift in public attitudes, Mr. Zatzman would still be sitting at his desk in the federal Green party office and the federal Green party MPs would be refusing to speak up for human rights in the Middle East.
As a long-time critical supporter of the federal Green party, I am disappointed for them that they have lost one-third of their caucus. On the other hand, I am very optimistic about what the backdrop to this defection tells us about a fundamental shift in public support for human rights in the Middle East.
Ms. Paul will either learn from this lesson, repudiate Mr. Zatzman’s comments, and begin to speak out more forcefully in favour of the Middle East’s victims or the Green party’s federal council will decide it is time to vote non-confidence and call for a general party membership leadership review.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (June 16, 2021): 419.21 ppm
One year ago (June 16, 2020): 416.50 ppm
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Very good summary, Tim.