REPRIEVE FOR GREEN LEADER
Confidence vote called off
A confidence vote scheduled for Tuesday that could have began the process to oust embattled Green party leader Annamie Paul has been cancelled, a source told the National Post on Sunday.
Paul, who has been the Green party's leader for less than a year, has been handling considerable internal strife in her own party, as her fellow party leaders Justin Trudeau, Erin O'toole and Jagmeet Singh prepare for an election campaign.
The reasons for the cancellation of the confidence vote, first reported by CBC News, were unclear on Sunday.
Paul, who took over from Elizabeth May in October 2020, has faced several recent challenges to her leadership and considerable internal party turmoil.
“The party looks like it is tearing itself apart,” a party volunteer told the National Post recently.
In June, the party announced it would be cutting $250,000 from Paul's campaign fund; she'd hoped to run in Toronto Centre. Then, in a recent conference call regarding layoffs of Green party staff, Paul was forcibly muted. She has also had her membership in the party she leads threatened with revocation. The reason, say those behind it, is that Paul is supposedly suing the party, a claim which Paul's office has denied.
Tuesday's vote would have set up the party's process to remove a leader. Paul has faced calls to resign, or be removed, for more than a month, particularly since Jenica Atwin, a Green MP from New Brunswick, crossed the floor to the Liberals, saying Paul was too pro-israel.
“This faction of people don't care about anything,” one Green party source told the Post recently, who insisted on speaking anonymously. “They just want Annamie out.”
This confidence vote was initiated following a Facebook post written by Noah Zatzman, a former adviser of Paul's, which said MPS, including Greens, were anti-semitic, and called on bigoted MPS to be defeated.
Tuesday's vote could be avoided, the party's executive had said, if Paul would repudiate Zatzman, something she has declined to do. It was unclear Sunday whether or not Paul had done so.
A non-confidence vote would have required a 75 per cent support of the party's 14-member council, then gone on to the party's general membership for a vote.
The Green party declined to comment Sunday. Paul is scheduled to hold a news conference Monday.