Will NDP arrest me for attending its debate?
The NDP is going to great lengths to avoid anti-imperialism in the leadership race. After expelling me from the race largely based on my criticism of Canadian foreign policy, they are seeking to avoid my supporters by keeping a major debate secret, threatening to expel registrants and searching bags to avoid protest.
Tomorrow evening there’s an NDP candidates’ debate in Toronto. They kept the location secret until 10 PM Thursday. After we posted about it, they added a rules disclaimer to the registration page. Fearing protest of the unelected 3 person vetting committee’s decision to exclude an anti-imperialist candidate, the organizers released an elaborate “Debate Conduct Policy” with extensive “Entry Conditions”. It states, “If someone participates in a demonstration related to this event outside of this event, entry will not be permitted. Organizers further reserve the right to:
- “Refuse entry to any individual who they believe will disrupt the event for any reason. Organizers do not have to disclose their reason.
- “Remove any individual whose conduct disrupts the event
- “Conduct reasonable bag or item checks.”
Additionally, the organizers sent me a long email asking me “not to attend, as we will not permit your entry.”
With Trump kidnapping Venezuela’s president, Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a possible war with Iran, more funding for the NATO proxy war and an unprecedented increase in Canadian military spending, one would hope a sensible leftist party would grant a leading critic of Canadian foreign policy a voice. Instead, they are going to desperate lengths to avoid my participation in the debate and leadership race.
At the first official NDP leadership debate in Montreal they didn’t ask about Israel’s role in the genocide in Gaza or Mark Carney’s radical militarism and no candidate raised international policy. According to Libby Davies on a recent Rabble panel, candidates were told their mics would be cut off if they ventured too far from the question asked, which the former MP suggested might explain why Gaza wasn’t mentioned.
Unfortunately, this is rooted in a long history of the NDP/CCF excluding critical discussion of Canada’s role abroad. In my 2018 book Left, Right — Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada, I explain:
“Ignorance is part of the problem, but it isn’t the primary explanation for the dearth of foreign policy criticism. Many NDP members and officials lack knowledge of global affairs and believe official mythology. At the top of the decision-making pyramid, however, it’s likely a political calculation.
“Party leaders have often sought to suppress critical information or positions. In the decade after World War II popular Manitoba official Berry Richards was denied positions within the party because he attacked US imperialism in Europe and “to many CCF leaders, this was an attack on the party.” In 1949 the party expelled two elected members of the Manitoba legislature for criticizing the Marshall Plan and NATO. The federal CCF also deterred members from engaging with the Canadian Peace Congress.
“During the 1950 federal convention B.C. CCF President and foreign policy expert Dorothy Steeves ‘was blocked from providing a full report.’ National Secretary David Lewis also pressured Steeves to tone down her (not particularly aggressive) challenges to the status quo in her CCF News column titled ‘A Socialist View of World Affairs’.
“Less extreme today [2018], the party continues to deter foreign policy criticism. During the 2015 federal election the NDP responded to Conservative party pressure by ousting as many as eight individuals from running or contesting nominations to be candidates because they defended Palestinian rights on social media. In the most high-profile incident, Morgan Wheeldon was dismissed as the party’s candidate in a Nova Scotia riding because he accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza, when it killed 2,200, mostly civilians, in the summer of 2014.
“Over the past two decades the party has repeatedly blocked strong Palestine solidarity resolutions submitted by riding associations ‘from reaching the stage of debate on the floor of the convention.’ In 2018 the party machinery employed a slew of manoeuvres to avoid debating the ‘Palestine Resolution’, which was unanimously endorsed by the NDP youth convention, many affiliated groups and over 25 riding associations. It mostly restated official Canadian policy, except that it called for ‘banning settlement products from Canadian markets, and using other forms of diplomatic and economic pressure to end the occupation.’
“At its 2011 convention ‘delegates at the foreign policy priorities panel succeeded in moving the Canadian Boat to Gaza resolution from very low on the list up to #2 position’, noted an NDP Socialist Caucus report. ‘But minutes before we could vote on approval of the content of the resolution, party officials herded 30 to 40 MPs and staff into the room to vote it down.’
“Party leaders haven’t only suppressed criticism of Israel. A Haiti solidarity resolution submitted by four riding associations never made the floor of the 2006 convention. Socialist Caucus leader Barry Weisleder wrote: ‘Former NDP leader and current External Affairs Critic, Alexa McDonough, moved to kill a high-ranked resolution on Haiti, endorsed by supporters of the Canada Haiti Action Network, which calls for an investigation into Ottawa’s role in the overthrow of democratically elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and demands the removal of Canadian police and an end to the ongoing foreign occupation of the super-exploited Caribbean country. McDonough’s attempt to substitute her own resolution, which sought to ignore the past and justify an ongoing imperialist ‘aid and reconstruction’ presence in Haiti, was soundly defeated following a sharp 20-minute debate. No doubt, the leftist Haiti motion would have carried, had it come to a vote — a point certainly not lost on the party brass.’
“‘To forestall debate on Libya, Gaza and NATO in 2011,’ wrote Weisleder about a subsequent convention, ‘the foreign policy panel moved up two resolutions on military and RCMP veterans’ affairs, plus ‘motherhood’ motions on accessible medicines and conflict minerals. To the dismay of many, party icon Stephen Lewis gave a rhapsodic introduction to the foreign policy selections, during which he bestowed his blessing on the murderous NATO bombing of Libya.’”
Join me tomorrow at 5:45PM at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School on the 7th floor at 55 Dundas West. I’ll speak outside the hall but will leave when the debate starts at 6:30.
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