By Harvey Oberfeld
Tuesday August 23rd, 2016
Elizabeth May is now just another example of why so many voters don’t respect politicians, don’t believe them, don’t think they have very high principles … and don’t vote.
May has announced … despite the Green Party’s lurch to the extreme far left and it’s deliberate new policy singling out of the only democracy in the Middle East … Israel … for a hateful discriminatory total boycott of EVERYTHING and EVERYONE emanating from that nation … that she will stay on as Leader.
Let’s be very clear.
That resolution was not just a protest or condemnation of a specific Israeli policy, but a call for a TOTAL boycott of EVERYTHING and ANYTHING to do with the country. That would bar ALL Israeli officials, Israeli businesses, Israeli products, Israeli cultural groups and Israeli educators from stores, meetings, conferences, conventions, campuses, or any other gathering.
How ironic that as all this has been unfolding, Amnesty International reported that MORE THAN 17,000 people have been killed ..many of them tortured …in Syrian jails since 2011. Read about it: HERE
That of course, is on top of the 500,000 Syrian people who have been bombed and gassed and artilleried and just plain shot to death during the same period …or the FOUR MILLION Syrians who have fled their country to save their lives.
But NO RESOLUTIONS from the Greens calling for a boycott of Syria or Syrians!
Greens policy still WELCOMES to Canada Syrian officials, Syrian businesses, Syrian products, Syrian cultural groups and Syrian educators to meetings, conferences, conventions, campuses, or any other gathering. … no problem!
And let’s also not forget the HORRIBLE RECORDS of Russia and China of not only forcefully occupying other lands (Ossetia, Georgia; Crimea; Moldova; Tibet; Mongolia … but then deliberately obliterating the local culture and anyone who dares to object.
But NO GREEN resolution boycotting RUSSIA or CHINA!
Just boycott the Jewish state.
DISGRACEFUL! DISCRIMINATORY! HATEFUL!
The move so perturbed Elizabeth May she said she was considering resigning as Green party leader.
That would have been the principled, honourable thing to do.
But in the end, May decided to keep her job.
In all my 38 years covering politics at every level in Canada, I always particularly admired Council members, MLAs, MPs … even Cabinet Ministers enjoying the perk s and privileges and pay of higher office … who stepped away over PRINCIPLES.
Blair Lekstrom, Paul Hellyer, Michael Chong, Suzanne Blais-Grenier, Brent Rathgeber and Joseph Comuzzi are just a few who come to mind. I certainly did not agree with all of their opinions/stances … but I believe our democracy is BEST served by elected officials who STAND BY their principles and their constituents’ interests and are willing to pay the price … literally … for doing so.
Too many politicians these days promise to do that before they get elected … but soon after become little more than party and/or government puppets …. more interested in ADVANCING and PRESERVING their own status, positions, pay and pensions …. than the views or interests of their constituents …. their principles be damned!
Elizabeth May, in my view, has now shown she’s just another one of those.
Anti Semite – will retire a MILLIONAIRE, on YOUR taxes – and she contributes NOTHING to Canada. Disgusting.
Elizabeth May is no better or worse than any other political figure. Hang the principles, politics is a job, and the only way for her to keep the long greens coming in is to wave the flag that is given to her. She will however need to learn a new song… Kermit the frog sang it while sitting on his lily pad…”It’s not easy being green…”
Agree with you 100%
Anti-Semitism is still anti-Semitism, regardless of how the Greens try to rationalize or excuse it.
I fail to understand why, and we see an example here, this party gets the publicity and attention it does.
It never elects more than one MP, never exceeds 10% of popular vote, does not have even a small chance of getting more, yet the press treats it and their leader as someone of great prominence.
And then the suits in the ivory towers of the major news organizations wonder why people are turning them off in droves in search of real news.
“Let’s be very clear.
That resolution was not just a protest or condemnation of a specific Israeli policy, but a call for a TOTAL boycott of EVERYTHING and ANYTHING to do with the country. That would bar ALL Israeli officials, Israeli businesses, Israeli products, Israeli cultural groups and Israeli educators from stores, meetings, conferences, conventions, campuses, or any other gathering.”
To be very clear, this is simply false: the Green Party opposes the continued Israeli presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, not “EVERYTHING and ANYTHING to do with the country” as you so crassly put it. Dishearteningly false, in fact, given that this is coming from someone who has retired after a successful career in journalism. Had you actually read the policy statement, you would have found the following:
“BE IT RESOLVED that the GPC supports the use of divestment, boycott and sanctions (“BDS”) that are targeted to those sectors of Israel’s economy and society which profit from the ongoing occupation of the OPT;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the GPC will support such a form of BDS until such time as Israel implements a permanent ban on further settlement construction in the OPT, and enters into good faith negotiations with representatives of the Palestinian people for the purpose of establishing a viable, contiguous and truly sovereign Palestinian state.”
I’ve provided a link to the Green Party’s policy so you may read it BEFORE spouting off like an imbecile, unless that is coincidental happenstance.
https://www.greenparty.ca/en/convention-2016/voting/resolutions/g16-p006
Says a lot about the weakness of your argument that you resort to insult: is this ANOTHER new Green principle/standard? As for BDS, here’s what Wikipedia says about it:
“With public calls on social media, protests, petitions and articles, pressure is put on individuals to cancel their participation in events in Israel or in Israeli settlements, such as concerts or academic events.[32] On the other hand, Israelis are pressured not to take part in activities outside Israel or the Occupied territories.[33] Participants in events are sometimes demanded to declare solidarity with the Palestinian cause.” Disgraceful! A clear demonstration that the NEW Greens don’t even support individual freedom or democracy.
I also note you failed to counter MY most important point: nothing wrong with criticising actions of the Israeli government (Israelis do it quite regularly) but the Greens REAL bigotry is on singling out for BDS the ONLY democracy in the Mid-East, where women and unions and gays and even their minorities have greater rights than in any of the Arab countries around them.
And you did not explain why the Greens have NOT urged BDS against MUCH WORSE real human rights violators and aggressive PERMANENT land grabbers: Russia (Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, Moldova) and China (Tibet, Mongolia and South China Sea islands). I suspect it’s because the Greens today are more RED than Green.
h.o.