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The NDP wants Sarah Jama, MPP to commit political suicide.
In deciding to deny her membership in the NDP caucus, Jama is forced to run as an independent. Not that that is so bad; I have no doubt that her integrity and popularity will mean she will be re-elected.
But what irks me is the NDP does this kind of shenanigan at virtually no political cost. The true-believers, and the social democrats stick with them – even when they are wrong. Maybe some people in Canada are thinking – “I won’t support the NDP because they don’t support Palestinians’ rights.” Or Jama’s only “mistake” was – days after 7 Oct –to write a social media post that criticized Israel’s war on Gaza. She called for an end to Israel’s brutal and illegal occupation of Gaza. Though she apologized for offending some Jews or Israeli Canadians, she refused to retract her post.
Left- Sarah Jama MPP in campaign office; right—Jama front row in hijab poses with her canvassers.
Yesterday I got a phone appeal to donate to my federal NDP candidate. The man who called assured me the NDP was everything I wanted it to be. What about cancelling candidates and even elected officials like Sarah Jama for daring to speak against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians? Well, the caller knew nothing about it. And didn’t want to know about people like Rana Zaman, and Tammy Jakeman. The former got turfed by what I call the Ottawa ‘mafia’ of the NDP after she had won the nomination for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour in the 2019 election.
Tammy Jakeman, who had won the NDP nomination for the provincial riding of Eastern Shore, was tossed by the NS NDP after a pro-Israel big cheese—who happens to be Jewish — in the provincial NDP came to her house in late Nov. to pressure her to pull out of the Nova Scotia election race. The woman did not bar Jakeman from the race, but just warned Jakeman that Jews wouldn’t respect her, that she could lose her job, that she could suffer a lot as she’d wear the label of being antisemitic – unless she relinquished the nomination. Under such pressure, Jakeman withdrew from the NDP and ran as an independent. Neither she nor her NDP successor won the riding.
In 2015, Morgan Wheeldon ran for the federal NDP in Kings-Hants, a riding in the Annapolis Valley. Days before the federal election, he too was turfed by the NDP mafia in Ottawa.
The NDP’s Shell Game
I told the NDP fundraiser on the phone I wanted to know where the party stood on the genocide in Gaza– after all it’s the major issue of the day. He told me if I wanted to know our NDP candidate’s views on Israel’s genocide I should ask her. I was interested in not just what the candidate said, but what was party policy. Both the federal and the provincial parties have removed NDP candidates for supporting Palestine as can be seen in the cases above. It’s an NDP shell game – the provincial NDP and the federal party often blame each other and deflect responsibility for executive actions.
I pointed out that with 30 seats added over the last few years, there are now 368 seats in Canada’s House of Commons. Fewer than 7% are occupied by the NDP. With only 25 seats, the NDP was able to successfully push the Liberals to create a limited national prescription program and a dental program. With a federal election probably on our doorstep, polls are showing the NDP is stuck somewhere it usually is – less than 20% of voters support them. They may not win many more seats in the upcoming race.
The NDP excluded their own candidates in support of Palestine. And the Ontario NDP caucus expelled Sarah Jama MPP for criticizing Israel. Doesn’t that sound strange? Criticism of Israel, and support for Palestinians could be a career ender. We don’t live in Israel but in Canada. Somehow we Canadians can denounce China, Russia, the US, Britain, Italy – for any human rights or political abuses, or denounce their politicians or laws. But no one is allowed to criticize Israel. How can that be?
Above, clockwise: Rana Zaman, Tammy Jakeman, Alexa McDonough, Morgan Wheeldon and Birju Dattani.
The other day when I said the NDP had removed candidates and disallowed MPP Sarah Jama from sitting as an NDP caucus member, one person told me “The Liberals would have done the same.” If a Liberal candidate had endorsed a ceasefire, criticized Israel or supported the Palestinians, the Liberals would have pulled the nomination. But the difference is the NDP is supposed to be the party of the people; it’s supposed to stand for social change for putting principles – such as human rights — into practice. We expect better of the NDP.
Former NDP Leader Audrey McLaughlin stood against the 1991 Gulf War
As Another Ruined Dinner Party reader Rod notes,
"you might give Audrey McLaughlin a pat on the back for the principled stand that she and the NDP caucus unanimously took regarding the 1991 war. (I remember writing to her myself at the time to support her action, comparing it to Tommy Douglas' stand on the War Measures Act.)"
Rod goes on, "To refresh my memory, I had a look at her memoir, A Woman's Place, where she devotes most of a chapter to the issue, setting out the cynical motivations that Bush the First had in pursuing war instead of letting sanctions do the work.. (Incidentally, I read the image of the book available at archive.org, a very useful site for me; it also contains a lot of Canadian titles.)"
McLaughlin in 2012
The Case of Birju Dattani - the NDP shrank out of the way
I couldn’t find any comments by a spokesperson for the federal NDP when Birju Dattani, hired as CEO of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, was forced to resign before he even started his job. The fingerprints of CIJA (Centre for Israel Jewish Affairs) and other pro-Israel organizations seemed to be all over the sudden decision to pull Dattani from the role due to his expressed sympathy for Palestinians.
When the NDP stood on principle…
In the last fifty years, there have been three memorable times the NDP has stood on principle — at a time it really counted.
The first was the time that NDP leader Tommy Douglas, and most of the 22 member federal NDP caucus, opposed the draconian and undemocratic imposition of the War Measures Act during the October Crisis in 1970. The Act stipulated anyone could be arrested and jailed for up to 90 days with no access to bail or trial. Douglas called it a “black Friday for civil liberties in Canada.”
In 1970, the NDP had only 22 seats, or 8.3% of the 264 seats in the House of Commons. Douglas’s decision was based on principle not on vote-getting.
In 2004, former federal NDP leader, the late Alexa McDonough MP, fought to get asylum for Sanja Pecelj, 34, a refugee from Kosovo who had taken sanctuary in a Halifax church basement to avoid deportation. Her application for refugee status had been denied twice. Yet McDonough publicly led a campaign to focus attention on Pecelj’s case.
The Case of Maher Arar
A third memorable stand for principle occurred when Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was arrested by American authorities and ‘rendered’ to Syria in George W. Bush’s (and we came to know also Canada’s) horrifying War on Terror. One parliamentarian stood up for him – NDP leader and MP Alexa McDonough. Within days of Arar’s kidnapping in Sept. 2002 and his year long incarceration in one of Syria’s notorious prisons, McDonough publicly stated not only was Arar not a terrorist, but that the American government – and even our own – colluded to arrest and torture him. As Monia Mazigh, Arar’s wife, wrote of McDonough after her death:
“When my husband, Maher Arar, was arrested by the American authorities and ‘rendered’ to Syria to be tortured, I was distraught, confused and alone. The NDP leader’s phone call and her words of encouragement brought optimism and a sense of importance.”
Monia Mazigh and Maher Arar, in Ottawa 14 January, 2004 (credit: Bill Grimshaw/Getty Images)
Full Circle: how does the NDP explain their pro-Israel focus?
So we’ve come full circle. McDonough, who was from Halifax and represented it for years, stood up for two people at tremendous risk that (at least at first) no other Canadian politicians acknowledged.
Now we have an MPP in Ontario, someone popular, young and someone who can speak and appeal to many in her Hamilton riding. A disabled Muslim peace activist of colour, Jama is also a community activist. Her mistake was to actually want for the Palestinians what we have as Canadians– no war. Yet she has been sidelined, smeared and hated by her (former) party –which at one time sided with people like Jama.
Photograph at the Top: Ottawa: Newsboy selling the now defunct Ottawa Journal a day after the War Measures Act was declared, 16 Oct. 1970. (credit: Peter Breg, The Canadian Press)
