Without politicians blaming migrants from countries suffering from wars and climate change caused by countries like Canada we might realize we could just tax the superrich and corporations slightly more and then build all the public housing, schools, and hospitals people needed.
Breaking news: Delegates to the BC NDP's convention in Victoria have voted overwhemingly to pass a resolution calling for a Ceasefire on Gaza.
To date not a single BC NDP MLA has publicly called for a ceasefire. Now the members have spoken.
#bcpoli
#ceasefire
#cdnpoli
“No NDP MLA or candidate for the next provincial election is welcome in their sacred spaces until the premier takes action against Selina Robinson.”
#bcpoli
NEW: The Muslim Student Associations of UBC and SFU are calling for Selina Robinson’s removal as BC’s minister of post-secondary education, calling her anti-Palestinian remarks “offensive,” “inaccurate,” and “an act of disseminating misinformation.”
#bcpoli
@UBC
@Dave_Eby
@SFU
BC NDP minister Selina Robinson on pre-1948 Palestine, classic Terra nullius justification for displacement & genocide:
"They don't understand that it was a crappy piece of land with nothing on it. There were several 100K people but..it didn't produce an economy."
#bcpoli
“Robinson, 60, said since she resigned on Feb. 5, she’s been ‘crying every day.’”
Just not for the starving Palestinian babies or for the 13,000+ children killed by the IDF in Gaza.
#bcpoli
One factor making damage control more challenging is that David Eby was warned by Palestinians months ago about Selina Robinson — and did precisely nothing.
#bcpoli
Today, B.C. Premier David Eby said that Minister Selina Robinson had used her position and authority to "increase division in our province."
Eby then called her words hurtful, belittling, and dismissive, before deciding to do exactly nothing about it.
This is unacceptable.
Liberal Party organizers cancelled tonight's $500/ticket fundraiser in Vancouver before Foreign Minister Joly even arrived at the venue.
#vanpoli
#CeasefireNOW
#cdnpoli
Disgraced ex-minister Robinson accuses two MLA colleagues of anti-semitism for…wanting the party to issue a statement recognizing the plight of Palestinians — something the BC NDP has still yet to do despite five months of war and the slaughter of tens of thousands.
#bcpoli
Brian Mulroney was a corrupt, reactionary politician who along with Thatcher and Reagan spearheaded neoliberal policies that deepened inequality and harmed the working classes in Canada and worldwide.
#cdnpoli
I am saddened to hear of the death of the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney.
He made an important contribution to Canada, including protecting our environment - leading the world in tackling acid rain and banning chemicals that were destroying the ozone layer.
Horgan's legacy from 5 years as Premier of BC includes:
- RCMP raids on Wet'suwet'en;
- Subsidies that enabled expansion of fracking/LNG;
- Continued old-growth logging;
- Many thousands of drug poisoning deaths on his govt's watch;
- Return of card-check unionization...
#bcpoli
By failing to take decisive action, Premier Eby has increased the harm caused by Selina Robinson.
Now communities are taking action into their own hands, banning *all* NDP MLAs from their sacred spaces.
#bcpoli
Eby isn't firing Selina Robinson from cabinet but expects her to go "out in the community" to repair harm.
This is very unlikely to happen or to work, given her long record of amplifying Islamophobia, demonizing Palestinians, and opposing even a ceasefire on Gaza.
#bcpoli
At a media event now BC Premier David Eby dismissed calls to remove Selina Robinson from cabinet. Also said “I believe the minister crossed the line as a member of cabinet" and "she has some work to do to go out in the community to address the harm she's done"
#bcpoli
Selina Robinson was openly amplifying racist and Islamophobic content *for months*.
The investigation that's needed is whether and in what other ways she misused her power as a cabinet minister due to her zealous support of Israel's genocidal campaign on Gaza.
#bcpoli
A 1% Wealth Tax just on BC's richest man, Jim Pattison, would generate approximately $139 million to provincial public services in year one.
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
#TaxTheRich
Selina Robinson and her friends/pundits who've written about her dismissal continue to pretend she just made one objectional comment.
They all ignore *months* of her amplifying racism & allegedly misuing ministerial power in support of a genocidal campaign in Gaza.
#bcpoli
NEW: Federation of Post-Secondary Educators responds to Selina Robinson’s demotion:
“We were…perplexed to hear the Premier repeat his claim that Ms. Robinson was not involved in the termination of our member by Langara College.”
#bcpoli
A reporter just told Dr. Henry “my jaw just hit the ground” when she said she wanted to get out of the business of issuing public health orders. Libertarianism of BC’s approach now on full display.
#bcpoli
BREAKING: Vancouver city council debating City budget. Councillor Jean Swanson has just moved an amendment to an amendment - to cut the VPD budget by $5 million.
#vanpoli
#DefundTheVPD
Fun fact: David Eby has not once publicly advocated for a ceasefire in Gaza, despite the federal and provincial NDP both officially supporting that position.
#bcpoli
“VCH has paid Nurse Next Door and its franchises more than $13 million over the last five years to help alleviate staffing shortages.”
Ken Sim profits off of the privatization of health care, and may be in conflict of interest.
#vanpoli
The annual amount VCH spends on the mayor's company and its franchises rose by 83% the year that Sim became mayor. Within months of taking office, he was voting to send city money to VCH. My latest for
@IJFMedia
.
Close to 1000 people joined in a rally and march that began at Vancouver's Commercial-Broadway Skytrain station Friday evening to demand an end to Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
#vanpoli
#Palestine
Peter Julian and NDP Vancouver Granville candidate
@AnjaliApp
address media in front of a property flipped by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal candidate in the riding.
#cdnpoli
#Elxn44
Noteworthy that even now that David Eby has called Selina Robinson’s comments “totally unacceptable,” not a single NDP MLA has publicly criticized her comments let alone called for her resignation.
#bcpoli
None of this is an accident.
Conservatives and Liberals have let rich investors use housing as a get-rich quick scheme.
Now their greed is so out of control that a 200 sqft “apartment” is going for $2000/month.
On the day a new initiative for Vancouver to pass the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is reported, the VPD sends dozens of cops to arrest Indigenous youth land defenders.
Decolonizing must include defunding the police.
#vanpoli
#TMX
NEW - MLA Selina Robinson has quit the NDP caucus and will sit as an independent. She has sent a letter to her colleagues saying she has not feel supported as a Jewish woman and has raised concerns about anti-Semitic comments previously made by NDP MLAs.
#bcpoli
You and every other member of the NDP caucus should be wearing a keffiyeh today in solidarity with Sarah Jama, but then again you didn't say anything when she was expelled from caucus.
#cdnpoli
#onpoli
The ban on the Palestinian keffiyeh at Queen’s Park is a stain on this province.
Everyone must be welcome in our democracy, without exceptions.
Stop the keffiyeh ban now.
#onpoli
Double standards:
Worth remembering that last year the Green Party’s deputy leader
@SKGandhiMD
was forced to resign for accidentally liking a tweet.
Members of the legislative press corps *and Selina Robinson* amplified the issue and demanded Gandhi’s resignation.
#bcpoli
NEW: Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has called Selina Robinson’s remarks on Palestine “offensive and irresponsible.”
He adds he’s raised “serious concerns” about Robinson with BC NDP Premier David Eby, who has rejected calls to remove her from his government’s cabinet.
#bcpoli
Justin Trudeau withdraws and retreats from Vij's after anti-occupation protesters disrupt his night out in Vancouver.
The movement for
#Ceasefire
in Gaza is everywhere and those complicit in genocide can't avoid it.
#vanpoli
#CeasefireNOW
#cdnpoli
As Israel raids al-Shifa hospital, people disrupt
@JustinTrudeau
while he wines and dines in Vancouver demanding that he call for a
#CeasefireNOW
.
International war crimes are being committed and Canada is signing off on them. No justice, no peace until Palestine is free. 🇵🇸
If Anjali Appadurai had won the BC NDP leadership race, she'd be removing Selina Robinson from cabinet.
Of course David Eby and the party establishment made sure Appadurai never even had a chance to contest the race.
#bcpoli
This is what happens when hatred shapes your worldview.
"it was a crappy piece of land with nothing on it...there were, you know, several 100 thousand people, but other than that" is a wild thing to say out loud.
This kind of racism does not belong in govt.
#FreePalestine
The real double standard:
After condemning Oct 7 but then not ever calling for a ceasefire, Premier Eby muzzled BC NDP MLAs on Israel’s genocidal campaign on Gaza while he allowed Selina Robinson to amplify anti-Palestinian content for months
#bcpoli
Open Letter To Premier
@Dave_Eby
& members of the BC NDP caucus:
“Initiate an independent investigation into Ms. Robinson's interference with employment decisions as well as academic freedom at the province’s institutions of higher learning.”
#bcpoli
1/
"Selina, your racist ideology and your colonial mindset have been described as hurtful, but it is so much more than that.
It is inaccurate, misrepresentative, without merit, threatening and above all dangerous."
#bcpoli
It is worth noting that these racist comments about Palestinians were made in the context of bemoaning the historical ignorance of young people these days. And this from the minister of post-secondary education in British Colubmia.
#bcpoli
BC NDP minister Selina Robinson on pre-1948 Palestine, classic Terra nullius justification for displacement & genocide:
"They don't understand that it was a crappy piece of land with nothing on it. There were several 100K people but..it didn't produce an economy."
#bcpoli
You’re not getting any N95s or take home tests so buy some Gatorade and candles and try not to die. A thread from our very helpful and not at all complicit public broadcaster.
#bcpoli
It's always good to be prepared with some key items at home in case you wake up with a cough or any other COVID-19 symptoms and have to self-isolate.
#COVID19BC
Selina Robinson and key figues in the legislative press corps are unwilling to acknowledge, let alone defend, the basic rights and humanity of the Palestinian people facing mass death, displacement & starvation.
They're willing to drag
#bcpoli
into the gutter to avoid it.
BC NDP Premier Eby has muzzled his caucus on Gaza, in case you’re wondering why no BC NDP MLAs or candidates have amplified this urgent and humane speech from earlier today.
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
#CEASEFIRE_NOW
The idea of Selina Robinson reaching out to Palestinians right now…might that not just worsen the harm? Why would they want to dialogue with someone who has been binge-liking racist & Islamophobic content for months to justify a genocidal campaign against their people?
#bcpoli
Eby's comments on Selina Robinson & her apologies to community members impacted by her comments about 'crappy piece of land with nothing on it'. While some called for her resignation, Eby dismissed that, saying Robinson 'has a lot of work to do' to address harm caused.
#bcpoli
Some important context on John Horgan's new corporate gig.
The Narwhal: Teck Resources, B.C. government pressed Ottawa to resist investigation into coal mine pollution
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
Here is a member of David Eby and Selina Robinson's party asking a very pertinent question.
How many more babies have to die before the BC provincial govt, or even a single NDP MLA, will join their own federal party in calling for a ceasefire?
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
“Mothers and babies are dying daily amid bombings and attacks. 4,000 children have been killed since the start of this siege... How many more babies have to die before this government will call for a ceasefire?” -
@Laurel_BC
#CeasefireNow
#Gaza
This morning at NDP convention: There's a crowd outside Victoria conference centre chanting: "David Eby, you can't hide, you're supporting genocide," protesting the BC NDP's failure to call for a ceasefire on Gaza.
#bcpoli
#CeasefireNOW
In November BC NDP members voted at convention to demand a ceasefire on Gaza. Since then NDP MLAs have been completely silent on Israeli war crimes and genocide.
#Rafah
#bcpoli
#Palestine
This resolution passed with overwhelming support at the BCNDP Convention.
I am so grateful to the speakers and was proud to stand with them in solidarity.
#CeasefireNOW
NEW: Muslim student organizations from secondary and post-secondary institutions across BC have issued an open letter calling on David Eby to remove Selina Robinson from the govt.
#bcpoli
Imagine the derangement required to think advocates of Palestinian human rights were motivated by personal grudges rather than, say, the 11,000+ children killed in an ongoing genocidal war.
#bcpoli
#cdnmedia
#palestine
Score-settling on the minds of some as Selina Robinson turfed from cabinet.
Via
@RobShaw_BC
Those on the attack:
- Harsha Walia (terminated
@bccla
)
- Anjali Appadurai
- Avi Lewis (
#UBC
prof.)
- Atiya Jaffar
- Naomi Klein (
#UBC
prof.)
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
East Van coop residents appeal to Mayor
@kennedystewart
to stop evictions and to let neighbours living in RVs stay. What a beautiful show of solidarity!
#vanpoli
Update: Today saw likely the largest coordinated Palestinian solidarity rallies in Canadian history. Not a single member of the BC NDP government has criticized let alone condemned or protested Israeli war crimes that've now killed nearly 4000 Palestinian children.
#bcpoli
Update: Not a single member of the BC NDP government has criticized let alone condemned or protested Israeli war crimes that've now killed over 3500 Palestinian children.
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
#Gaza
New: Vancouver City Council candidate Sean Orr is calling on B.C. NDP leadership candidates Anjali Appadurai and David Eby to support rolling back the expected 2023 rent hike, which could be as high as 5-6%.
#vanpoli
#bcpoli
"Contrary to your insistence, the call for your removal from cabinet was not based on a double standard but rather your repeated public utterances and social media posts expressing highly problematic anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim views."
#bcpoli
Open letter to former BC gov't minister Selina Robinson from IJV-Vancouver in response to claims made in her public letter announcing her resignation from the
@bcndp
caucus
#bcpoli
@Dave_Eby
Mayors and city councillors from across British Columbia are calling for a ceasefire, in contrast to the complete silence from the BC NDP govt and Premier David Eby.
#bcpoli
#vanpoli
#CeasefireNOW
The chorus for peace grows louder and louder.
Over 50 mayors and city councillors in British Columbia are calling for a ceasefire in
#Gaza
.
They are calling for an end to the spiking Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism across
#Canada
.
"We stand all night. Our children are sick because of the cold and the rain"
The situation in shelters is unliveable. People in📍
#Gaza
have no safety, no options. Nowhere else to go.
#HearTheirVoices
Hard to take seriously some of those now weighing in as authorities on the Selina Robinson case after spending months pretending not to notice the ex-minister's campaign of amplifying anti-Palestinian racism and justification for a genocidal war.
#bcpoli
Confirmed: The UBC Social Justice Centre was defamed by an individual who was associated with Hillel BC until earlier this week. This dangerous smear campaign was amplified by former Canadian Senator Linda Frum, among others.
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
#disinformation
#Palestine
NOW: Protest against Israel’s genocide on Gaza marching on Broadway, having just left the front of Premier David Eby’s constituency office.
#bcpoli
#Palestine
NEW: Palestinian organizations and their supporters are planning rally at Vancouver City Hall on Thursday Oct. 19 to protest Mayor Ken Sim and city council's "complicity and support of genocide in Palestine."
#vanpoli
via
@bds_vancouver
BC NDP cabinet minister Selina Robinson is now amplifying tweets bashing Prime Minister Trudeau for urging Israel to exercise restraint against civilians in Gaza.
Over 11,000 Palestinians incl 4500+ children have been killed by Israeli forces.
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
#CeasefireNOW
Eby could have avoid all the protests if he'd just listened to the voices of Palestinians and thousands of others who wrote to him in the Fall about Selina Robinson's months-long campaign of amplifying misinformation and Islamophobia justifying the genocidal war on Gaza.
#bcpoli
Not the first time David Eby has disparaged protesters as divisive.
It's a classic centrist talking point, a grotesque false equivalency between those who defend and manage unjust capitalist and colonial systems, and those who organize and fight back.
#bcpoli
#SelinaMustGo
The
#bcpoli
insiders want you to know it was the good protesters not the bad ones who forced David Eby to demote Selina Robinson.
1) This isn't how social movements work - in reality radicals push moderates to act.
2) Stop demonizing people trying to stop a genocide.
#bcpoli
Cleaning up selenium pollution in B.C.’s coal country could cost up to $6.4 billion, says a new report.
The cost far exceeds the $1.9 B reclamation security the B.C. gov't has set for Teck Coal to clean up pollution from its Elk Valley mines.
NEW - Minister Selina Robinson has sent out a second statement. In part it reads - “The experiences of First Nations people are not mine to manipulate. That was wrong and I am deeply sorry”.
#bcpoli
Breaking: NDP to hold press conference this hour in Vancouver Granville outside one of the 21 properties Liberal candidate Taleeb Noormohamed has flipped in recent years.
Trudeau’s chances of flipping this battleground riding back to the Liberals in danger.
#cdnpoli
#Elxn44
“There’s absolutely no history book that would affirm Minister Robinson’s articulation of that period in time.”
The comments were not merely 'inaccurate,' but rather racist and dehumanizing - and quite blatantly so.
#bcpoli
- Site C Dam;
- Highest minimum wage in the country, $15.65 per hr;
- Limiting annual rent hikes to inflation, but failing to implement vacancy control..
- Overriding municipal govt's attempting to limit police budgets;
What are other highlights/lowlights of Horgan's tenure?
NEW: Activists disrupted David Eby last night while he was introducing Ed Broadbent at a
@VPL
book launch, condeming the BC NDP Premier for his complicity in genocide and failure to condemn Israeli war crimes.
Eby said nothing, and sat down.
#bcpoli
via
@MassyBooks
Update: Not a single member of the BC NDP government has criticized let alone condemned or protested Israeli war crimes that've now killed over 3500 Palestinian children.
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
#Gaza
Nearly half a million views on this clip of Selina Robinson disparaging young adults as uneducated about history and then calling Palestine “a crappy piece of land with nothing on it.”
Story of the day in
#bcpoli
.
NDP minister
@selinarobinson
justifying genocide by calling Palestine “a crappy piece of land with nothing on it”. Hateful, bigoted remarks that should result in her immediate resignation
@Dave_Eby
BREAKING: Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 70 people were killed and 280 were wounded in a strike on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid.
The irony is that David Eby has maintained a cowardly silence for five months, failing to once call for an end to Israel’s genocidal campaign on Gaza or even a ceasefire despite that being the NDP’s democratically-adopted position.
#bcpoli
1/5 🧵 Premier
@dave_eby
must address the deep-rooted issues in Minister Robinson's remarks. Her "crappy land" comment isn't just hurtful, it's a reflection of a racist ideology that fuelled colonialism in BC for centuries. More here:
#bcpoli
David Eby has not shared this statement to his social media.
This statement from the premier suggests he will not ask her to resign or remove her from cabinet.
#bcpoli
Premier
@Dave_Eby
issued a statement calling Minister Robinson’s statement “wrong and unacceptable”, causing “deep hurt and distress to Palestinians, Muslims and many others.” He thanked her for withdrawing the comments and apologizing.
#bcpoli
The entire political class in British Columbia chose to remain silent as this genocide was committed over the past six months. A shameful failure of the most basic responsibility of leaders in public life to advocate for universal human rights.
#bcpoli
#Gaza
#Palestine
Al Shifa Hospital constituted 30% of the capacity of the health system in the Gaza Strip. The Israelis have blown up or torched all its buildings to ensure that it is irreprable and needs to be rebuilt from scratch. The aim was and remains making Gaza uninhabitable. Genocide
"David Eby said earlier this week while they’re doing life-saving work, govt can’t tolerate illegal activity."
Does David Eby know any lawmakers who could make this life-saving work legal?
#bcpoli
#vanpoli
NEW -
@VancouverPD
has raided DULF after they publicly admitted to buying drugs on the dark web, testing them for safety and then selling them from a storefront. Premier
@Dave_Eby
said earlier this week while they’re doing life-saving work, govt can’t tolerate illegal activity.
Hello from Vancouver, Canada where the Empty Homes Tax (originally proposed by the left) is nearly universally embraced for restoring units to the rental market and generating revenue used to build social housing.
I will never understand why Marxists are obsessed with the extremely false idea of investors leaving homes vacant when the real story, homeowners and landlords profiting off gov. enforced scarcity, fits their worldview so much better.
Premier David Eby raises questions today on whether a supervised consumption site is needed in
#RichmondBC
at this time after speaking with Van Coastal Health. Last night there was heated debate at a council meeting with another meeting scheduled for 7pm today.
#bcpoli
"Robinson’s removal from cabinet was a starting point for BC’s government. But it cannot be the endpoint: the lessons of the Holocaust demand not that we give Israel a blank check to commit genocide, but that we do everything we can to oppose its genocidal actions."
#bcpoli
“The lessons of the Holocaust demand not that we give Israel a blank check to commit genocide, but that we do everything we can to oppose its genocidal actions.”
From IJV-Vancouver member Nick Gottlieb:
Silence is complicity. David Eby ordered his caucus not to speak on Israel’s genocidal campaign on Gaza — even though demanding a ceasefire is official party policy as voted by membership at convention.
#bcpoli
#gaza
The real double standard:
After condemning Oct 7 but then not ever calling for a ceasefire, Premier Eby muzzled BC NDP MLAs on Israel’s genocidal campaign on Gaza while he allowed Selina Robinson to amplify anti-Palestinian content for months
#bcpoli
Federal NDP leader makes his first tweet about the Selina Robinson situtation, condemning..an action by some of those opposed to Robinson who yesterday resigned from the BC govt cabinet after calling pre-1948 Palestine "a crappy piece of land with nothing on it."
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
NEW: BC’s
@HospEmpUnion
joins the growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The HEU, which has 60,000 members working in hospitals and other care facilities, is also calling on Trudeau to stop all exports of arms that could be used in the war.
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
#canlab
NEW: Vancouver City Council has unanimously approved policies raising the rent on hundreds of "affordable" market rental units under construction and removing vacancy control on thousands of future rental units.
ABC, OneCity and Green councillors all in favour.
#vanpoli
When the Globe and Mail sponsored war criminal Dick Cheney's 2011 talk at the Vancouver Club, it was access journalist Rod who did their softball interview and left Cheney's lie that the US never tortured anyone at Guantanamo unchallenged.
#bcpoli
@NeilBoydSFU
"Racism", like "genocide", is a word that is thrown around far too widely...used to tar the other side, no nuance, no context...so the real thing gets blurred and lumped in with everything else...
Update: Not a single member of the BC NDP government has criticized let alone condemned or protested Israeli war crimes that've now killed over 3500 Palestinian children.
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
#Gaza
Update: Not a single member of the BC NDP government has criticized let alone condemned or protested Israeli war crimes that've now killed over 3000 Palestinian children.
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
#Gaza
Will BC NDP Premier David Eby join his federal party leader in condemning Israel's killing of a Canadian aid worker, or will he continue his complicit silence on Israel's genocidal campaign on Gaza?
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
An IDF airstrike killed 7
@WCKitchen
humanitarians, including a Canadian, aiding Palestinians.
They were trying to keep people alive.
Instead they were killed.
I'm devastated.
Canada must demand accountability and justice.
Aid workers are
#notatarget
and must be protected.