Another high profile Liberal Party member tries to dodge accusations of anti-Semitism
Yet another high profile member of Canada's Liberal Party is having trouble finessing the subtle issues in the Middle East. This time the communications director for Liberal leadership candidate Martha Hall Findlay is on record as equating Israel with Hezbollah.
Canada's Liberal Party has been knocked back on its heels.
Liberal MP Boris Wrzesnewskyj goes to Syria, then comes back declaring Israel guilty of state-sponsored terrorism, and demanding that Hezbollah be taken off the Canadian government's list of terror groups.
Thomas Hubert, the VP of Communications for the Young Liberals (British Columbia) and a volunteer on Gerard Kennedy's Liberal leadership campaign, posts a comment arguing for the purge of violent Zionists (that is, any Jew who thinks Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was right to support Israel) from the Liberal Party, and throws in the blood libel for good measure. He has been forced to resign.
Another communications director, this time for Liberal leadership candidate Martha Hall Findlay, Mohammed Hashim, praises Sid Ryan, the head of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), writing "The man is awesome. Especially his views on Palestine. BTW I firmly believe that CUPE taking that stance and Sid promoting it was an excellent move. Great work Sid!".
For the record, Sid Ryan equates Israel with Hezbollah, and has made that official CUPE policy, not just his personal opinion. Sid Ryan is demanding a world-wide boycott of Israel. But when Jewish leaders suggested a counter-boycott of CUPE, Sid Ryan hit the roof:
Boycotts are a peaceful form of protest.… The Canadian Jewish Congress has told their members to go into their synagogues to denounce us. Rabbis have even instructed their members to disaffiliate from CUPE. That's union busting!
I thought it was just a peaceful form of protest. But Hashim thinks Sid Ryan is on the right side of the issue:
Got to meet Sid Ryan there, the Irish man was delightful. I love the fact that CUPE has taken such a strong position on the matter of Palestine. All the power to him.
He also thinks Carolyn Parrish is just great, also on issues regarding Palestine. I suppose this includes Parrish's refusal to sign a petition denouncing the comments of Mohamed Elmasry, who declared that all Israeli civilians (or perhaps all Israeli civilians over the age of 18 -- it's a bit confusing) are valid targets for terrorists:
Then on Sat. went to a campaign kick-off BBQ for Carolyn Parrish. This lady is fantastic. You know everyone blasts her for stomping on the Bush doll, or her rather strong views on Palestine, but I applaud her for her courage and having such conviction. If she needed any help with her campaign, i'd definitely help her out.
So what of Hashim? What does he think of our concerns about the opinions he holds? He thinks this is all just so much noise:
Geez. Looks like saying a nice thing about someone like Sid Ryan is causing a little ruckus. I still think Sid's a good guy. and this is not Martha's position at all...dont people start blogs to share their own "personal" thoughts with a few friends. And where in this world are people making up such insane talk of anti-semitism or being anti-Israeli. btw, just to clarify this is not a campaign website.
Not a campaign website? To the left of the "not a campaign website" comment, in the "About Me" box:
I currently work for MADD Canada, managing all their youth programs from the National Office. Have done a ton of political work and am currently working on Martha Hall Findlay's Leadership Campaign as her Communications Director.
Below that, blog entry after blog entry with descriptions of campaign events, pictures of the campaign bus, pictures of the candidate...
Hashim, a bit of advice, if you want to share thoughts with just your friends and no one else, use the phone. And if you want your opinions to not be associated with Martha Hall Findlay's campaign, blog under a pseudonym and stop mentioning the campaign.
But then that seems to be the pattern, doesn't it? Liberals babbling away in public forums and doodling their positions on blogs or on election websites, but when someone calls them out on it, the dissembling begins. He was misinterpreted. He apologizes only if someone was offended, but carefully forgets to apologize for his actual statements. His opinions are private and not connected to his work in politics, suggesting he has an entirely different, and presumably diametrically opposed, set of opinions to use in his official capacity.
Which leaves the rest of us in an awkward situation when listening to members of the Liberal Party. Are the ones who seem to be supportive of Israel using their "public" faces, while secretly harbouring thoughts as extreme as Elmasry's? How can we tell? Then maybe this isn't even our problem. We can simply assume they are all lying when one of them says he supports Israel and does not tolerate anti-Semitism, at least until the party makes a concerted effort to deal with Wrzesnewskyj and Hubert and Hashim and their kind. Of course, it might be too late for that. It really depends on how deep the rot goes.
[Jason Cherniak is leading the pack on much of this, and small dead animals has more on Hashim]
Skew my story on Skewz.com
Rate political news for their bias, read related stories, and leave your own skewed commentary
Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords
Israel Canada Hezbollah Liberal Party anti-Semitism Syria Boris Wrzesnewskyj Gerard Kennedy Thomas Hubert Martha Hall Findlay Mohammed Hashim Sid Ryan CUPE Carolyn Parrish Mohamed Elmasry
Sphere presents related news articles and blog posts
Sphere It!
Comments
I wonder how many of these sponsors would be happy that the organization they support is tied to this person in such a public manner
http://www.madd.ca/feature_ar2005.html
notice that an Ontario crown corp...the LCBO....is on the list of sponsors....
Is Senator LeBreton comfortable with her employees public views and statements linking MADD to these views?
http://www.madd.ca/english/about/boardofdirectors.html
Just thought I would ask?
Posted by: Stephen at August 22, 2006 10:42 AM
I'm a Liberal and I hope the rot doesn't go very deep. In all sincerity I can tell you that the values expressed by the trash you have discussed in this post do not reflect the values of our party. I am a person of peace and tolerance and I believe the Liberal Party and the vast majority of its membership feel the same way. I am every bit as happy as you to see these scumbags retire.
Posted by: Nathan Hewitson at August 22, 2006 11:12 AM
The left is delusional. This is an apologist for a regime clearly more venomous than the Nazis.
Hitler kept his exterminations under some cover. Iran *Mullusks* and *Madmud* himself openly preach the vaporization of all Israelis who occupy less than one tenth of one percent of the middle east.
Ahmadinejad said * that when the West bows down to the powere of Iran, Iranians will enjoy their fruits.
A mushroom is not a fruit.
It will keep longer in tehran made of glass, however. = TG
Posted by: TonyGuitar at August 22, 2006 12:00 PM
When did this anti-jewish venom become mainstream. It's sick.
Posted by: John at August 22, 2006 05:34 PM
My take on John's question "When did this anti-jewish venom become mainstream. It's sick."
is that it began the moment Trudeau's party brought in the idea of multiculturalism, which still too many Canadians think means that ALL cultures are equal and equally deserving of attention and funds.
Multiculturalism didn't mean this at all, and was the code word for anti-British, anti-Christian, and anti-Jewish: read, for short, anti-Judeo Christian, on whose values our political, judicial, and educational institutions are founded. Throw in our moral codes as well: you know, women and children first, marriage between one man and one woman being the norm in order to provide for the security and well-being of the kids, helping others less fortunate than ourselves, criminals being put in jail for the good of society? That kind of morality.
Since multiculturalism has been championed, minorities have been given "pride of place" in Canadian society, as evidenced by how the government has favoured them when it comes to funding "cultural" programs, allowing them to immigrate without assimilating (as long as they vote Liberal), etc. Our politically correct mindset, ground into students from their earliest years, portrays immigrant minorities as victims--not of the tortuous and barbaric regimes they fled in order to come to Canada to enjoy our democratic freedoms: Oh no. They are victims of Canadians' affluence (because, you see, they’re have-nots), and of British/Judeo-Christian values, which ask them to be contributing members of Canadian society and to respect our laws and customs.
Instead of multiculturalism creating an "open," "tolerant," and "harmonious" society, it has created ethnic ghettoes and solitudes. Whereas some used to talk about "Two Solitudes" in Canada (the British and the French), we now have as many solitudes as there are ethnic/cultural groups in Canada.
And guess who our governments haven’t supported (I’m talking successive Trudeau/Chretien/Martin Liberal governments)? The Judeo-Christian groups. If it wasn't for our value system, there would be no Canadian, U.S., English, or Australian democracies, all the envy of people in third world countries, whose governments oppress their citizens and where human rights are non-existent. It’s no accident that the flow of traffic is not from, for instance, Canada to the ME; rather, it is the other way around.
The issues I’m discussing here you won’t find being discussed very many places: Ted Byfield, David Frum, Mark Steyn, David Warren, and a few others have the guts to tackle them, but in the Canadian MSM, they are taboo. They are politically incorrect. But if we continue to hide behind multiculturalism and pc mumbo-jumbo, we are going to forfeit all that has made Canada the reason why so many immigrants want to come here. We’re killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
For what? To say that Canada is such an “open, tolerant, and diverse country.” But what does that really mean? We’re trashing our inheritance for a Utopian Dream that, in reality, is in the process of disintegrating.
Posted by: 'been around the block at August 22, 2006 11:08 PM
Nathan Hewitson: Your Liberal party is in disarray and we all know how it got that way and who to blame. It started with Trudeau and ended with one Paul Martin who made a further mess of the shreds left by Jean Chretien. It was a creeping rot and the players were laughing all the way to the final implosion. The laughing is much more hollow now, but it's a sad testament to any political party and politics in general as we watched this being played out. No excuses please.
Posted by: Biddy at August 23, 2006 07:11 PM
Hashim has pulled his blog down now too...
Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2006 08:24 PM
Biddy: If you were trying to refute what I said, you did a piss poor job of it. Have another go at it, will you.
Posted by: Nathan Hewitson at August 25, 2006 02:31 PM
 
|
|
