GAFFES AND SCANDALS: Green Party rifts revealed
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A promising start with a new leader quickly went to seed for the Green Party of Canada.
The defection of Green Party MP Jenica Atwin to the Liberals in June revealed startling rifts in the party.
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Her departure cut the number of sitting Green Party MPs by one-third and was especially damaging as Atwin had wrestled the Fredericton seat away from the Liberals.
Atwin pointed to a public statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict posted by Leader Annamie Paul as motivation for the floor-crossing switch.
Paul had tweeted in May after an outbreak of fighting in Gaza, “The Green Party of Canada calls for an immediate de-escalation in the violence and a return to dialogue as a means to seeking a peaceful resolution. Violence and confrontation will not bring resolution, only more suffering”
Atwin tweeted that she stood with Palestine and called Paul’s call for a non-violent solution “totally inadequate.”
Soon Paul was fighting members of her own party’s executive which sought to hold a confidence vote on her leadership and a review of her party membership.
Only a month before the federal election call, an arbitrator stopped the process, but the party decided to launch a potentially expensive legal battle to overturn that ruling.
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The next tussle was over funding for her campaign and staff.
Paul, the first Black and Jewish woman elected to lead a federal political party in Canada, described the allegations against her as racist and sexist.
“This has undoubtedly been one of the most painful periods of my life. My integrity has been questioned. I’ve been stripped of many of the tools I need to be an effective Leader. This was not infighting, rather a one-sided campaign to end my leadership,” Paul tweeted in July.
The Toronto Sun is revisiting political gaffes and scandals in the run-up to the Sept. 20 federal election.
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