Jewish groups react to Ashton’s event with Corbyn

OTTAWA – A prominent Canadian Jewish advocacy group says it was shocked to find out that NDP MP Niki Ashton is joining a talk with former U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was forced to resign over his handling of a report concluding his party did not take action to prevent anti-semitism.

“It was a mix of shock, disappointment and a bit of revulsion that I felt when I saw that a sitting Member of Parliament would bring — virtually — to Canada the man who has been known to let a spirit of anti-semitism pervade his party when he was at the helm of that party,” reacted Richard Marceau, vice-president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).

He was reacting to an upcoming virtual “conversation” announced by MP Niki Ashton on social media Thursday between herself and Corbyn on March 20.

The event is meant to be a discussion on how to “build a strong progressive politics,” noting the “system is broken” and that the COVID crisis has shown how many people have “paid the price of neoliberal policies.”

“Instead of a bold progressive vision put forward by leaders like Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, we have more of the same political leadership that places profit ahead of people,” the event page reads.

“We have right-wing parties that engage and promote racist policies that do harm to so many of our communities, or centre-right parties that do the same, but with a smile.”

In a joint statement with CIJA, the U.k.-based Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was “astonished” to see Ashton’s involvement in the talk with “disgraced former leader” Corbyn. “The absurdity of this is hard to fathom,” organization president Marie van der Zyl said.

Rick Smith, head of the Broadbent Institute, a leftwing think-tank bearing the name of former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, also described Ashton’s participation as “unfortunate” on social media.

“This is not the sort of person that should headline a progressive fundraiser or occupy the time of Canadian progressive leaders,” Smith wrote on Twitter about Corbyn.

Last October, a British human rights watchdog found that the Labour party had committed “unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination” involving anti-semitism during the four and a half years Corbyn led the party.

“Our investigation has identified serious failings in leadership and an inadequate process for handling antisemitism complaints across the Labour Party, and we have identified multiple failures in the systems it uses to resolve them,” reads the report by the Equality and Human rights Commission.

“Our analysis points to a culture within the Party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it.”