THUNDER BAY – A possible leadership review hanging over the head of Green Party leader Annamie Paul is an unfortunate distraction for the party, says a local candidate.
Tensions touched off by disagreements over the Israel-Palestine conflict saw one of the party’s three MPs leave for the Liberals last week.
The Greens’ national council has also threatened to launch the review of Paul’s leadership on July 20 if she does not repudiate a former advisor over his online conduct.
Amanda Moddejonge, CEO of the party’s Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding association and its candidate for Thunder Bay-Superior North, said she still believes Paul is a strong leader, but said the episode was damaging.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to find out after the dust settles that she is still leader, and I think it is very important for us to support our leadership,” she said.
However, the contentious defection of Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin to the Liberals meant the party “needed to take a look at what was actually going on internally and see how we could fix that,” she said.
Two of the Green Party’s three MPs, including the now departed Atwin, criticized a statement from Paul on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Atwin criticized Paul’s statement as “totally inadequate” for painting an equivalence between the two sides.
"Forced evictions must end,” she wrote on social media. “I stand with Palestine and condemn the unthinkable airstrikes in Gaza.”
One of Paul’s senior advisors, Noah Zatzman, stated on social media the party would work to defeat its own MPs if they were overly critical of Israel, and replace them with candidates who were “Zionists” as well as climate defenders.
The party’s executive committee later voted not to renew Zatzman’s contract.
Paul has so far refused to publicly repudiate Zatzman and his comments, despite the ultimatum from the party’s national council.
Instead, she said earlier this week the concerns stemmed from a small group of party members and were motivated by racism and sexism.
Paul is the first woman of colour to lead a major Canadian political party, a fact Moddejonge believes played into a harsher reaction to her handling of the situation.
The July 20 review would require a three-quarters vote of the council to kick off a formal vote on whether to replace Paul by party members in August.
Moddejonge said the situation had created an unnecessary distraction from key issues the Green Party wanted to champion.
“We’re now devolved into identity politics, over what?” she asked. “Two people had a disagreement. This is a disagreement that’s being had globally. Should it have played out this way? No, not even a little bit. This is the most unfortunate situation that could have come out of this.”
Moddejonge isn’t convinced a statement of contrition is required from the leader.
“I don’t know it’s actually an official apology that’s needed,” she said. “I think Jennica needed to be listened to, 100 per cent.”
