This apparently was the weekend for the tea to start being spilled about what was really going on inside the Green Party, and we got a lot of details. The primary one is this lengthy read that details the struggles inside the party, and there is plenty of blame to go around, but what is on offer here really shows that Annamie Paul was a key author in her own misfortune. To add to that, Elizabeth May also writes in her own words an account of why she stayed silent on Paul’s orders, how she tried to support Paul in any way possible including offering to resign and let Paul run in her riding, which is the first time I’ve heard that such an offer had been made. More to the point, it is a fairly detailed accounting of how Paul misunderstood how Greens view their own leadership, and tried to impose a very top-down view of it, including demanding that her MPs didn’t speak to the media, and how even now, Paul announced her intentions to resign but hasn’t formally done so, which is why the party is in a weird state of limbo.
While once again I have no doubt that racism, misogyny and antisemitism all played a role in Paul’s departure, her own actions were certainly part of what happened, from her salary demands (she wanted the party to pay a salary equivalent as though she were a sitting MP), to her control over the party that was unlike the party’s constitution, which the national council largely did accede to. This being said, everything that has come out this weekend really makes me think that the glass cliff narrative is less likely a driving force in what happened, and a more complicated series of events took place. It is too bad, given how Paul did acquit herself on the national debate stage for the most part (until you realised her answer for everything was “we have to work together”) and it’s a shame that it all came to this.
Meanwhile, May also stated over the weekend that she won’t take the interim leader position, and says she wants Paul Manly, who lost his seat, to do the job until they can run another leadership contest. Of course, it may be too late for the party by this point, but we’ll see if they can salvage what remains, but it’s not looking promising.
Good reads:
- Justin Trudeau offered a private apology to the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation chief for not getting back to her invitation for Truth and Reconciliation Day.
- The Canadian Forces should be in a position today to determine where they will be deploying assistance to Alberta.
- Pfizer has released their preliminary trial data to Health Canada for vaccines for children aged five to eleven.
- The Star got more behind-the-scenes details on the release of the two Michaels from Chinese custody and return to Canada.
- The court challenge by Major-General Dany Fortin about getting his former position back has highlighted the backlog of grievances within the Canadian Froces.
- The Catholic Church has claimed they provided $28 million in “in-kind” compensation to First Nations survivors, such as bible study. No, seriously.
- There are a few Canadian names in the Pandora Papers release.
- Senator Yuen Pau Woo talks about being subjected to anti-Asian racism for statements he made that echo others made by white colleagues.
- Chantal Hébert lambastes the gap between Trudeau’s words and his choices.
Odds and ends:
Jumping up and down about tax avoidance among the very rich is how upper-middle-class progressives distract attention away from proposals that would increase their taxes.
— Stephen Gordon (@stephenfgordon) October 3, 2021
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Chantal Hébert has been writing some version of the same column for years. Look back to her response to the Eve Adams floor crossing and it’s the same thing… ‘is this really politics done differently because I don’t think so.’ It’s old hat. Despite being a person without any legal training, she also said she sees zero reason for the Justice Dept. to appeal Judge Paul Faval’s ruling on the appeal and you have been kind of silence on it. It’s weird since the double-hyphen stuff was all about the how dare politics even remotely enter into influencing the Justice Dept. yet now people are crying that the PM is personally involved in this appeal and why-oh-why won’t he stop it.
I thought the line in AFN chief’s statement about how she was the ‘national chief’ and therefore spoke for all FN peoples was a bit odd. AFN doesn’t have national elections, it’s a bureaucracy with plenty of FN bands not participating and if people are mad about ‘popular vote’, Archibald barely eked out a win. She appealed to ‘Belgrade was too close with the federal government’ wing of the AFN and JWR whipped up support for her so interesting how much influence she’ll have versus how much influence she wants on national issues especially if she lashes out over the feds making deals with individual bands rather than through the AFN. Already seeing the Inuit and Métis leadership distancing themselves from AFN’s leadership.
AFN Chief Archibald lambasted the media for hyper-focusing on Trudeau instead of survivors’ stories. They were obviously stung by that, so in their continued hyper-focusing on Trudeau instead of survivors’ stories, they intentionally omitted the second paragraph of her statement where she lambasted the media for hyper-focusing on Trudeau instead of survivors’ stories. And I believe they’re still braying about the same old news today despite nothing new to report. Just more “hot takes” and opinions from the same tired revolving door of white pundits and weaponized, camera-addicted race hustlers like Blackstock and JWR. The media has the damn nerve to circle the wagons when they get pushback for their Hillary’s Emails relentless fake scandal-mongering. #CdnMediaFailed is still trending and for good reason. Fk them and their gotcha BS.
The more I read about how the Greens unravelled and undermined Paul, the more I felt like I was witnessing the decline of the New Brunswick Confederation of Regions Party all over again. When the party was essentially one person – Liz May – they seemed more coherent. As they got bigger, it seemed like they dashed off in a thousand different directions.