Elizabeth May to Remain Green Party Leader Despite Controversy

The Greens’ support for BDS movement to be revisited

The Green Party of Canada held its annual convention from Aug. 5 to 7, during which the party’s membership voted in favor of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel.

According to the movement’s website, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions is a Palestinian-led movement that has been inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. According to them, Israel is occupying and colonizing Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. BDS is responding by employing economic means to pressure Israel into complying with international law, which they believe is being violated.

The leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May, has been quite vocal about her opposition to the BDS movement, as well as her disagreement with the party membership’s decision to enact support for it as a part of official Green Party policy. She has previously discussed leaving the party over the membership’s endorsement of BDS.

“As leader, I am disappointed that the membership has adopted a policy in favor of a movement that I believe to be polarizing, ineffective, and unhelpful in the quest for peace and security for the peoples of the Middle East,” said May, in a statement released on the official Green Party of Canada website. “As is the right of any member, I will continue to express personal opposition to BDS.”

Ken Melamed, the Federal Council President of the GPC, says in the same statement that “the GPC supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and we continue to advocate for good-faith negotiations. This support is intended to further advocate to that end.”

By choosing to support the BDS movement, the Greens are placing economic pressures exclusively on Israel, arguably designating them as the sole guilty party and, as a result, are effectively siding with Palestine in this conflict.

The GPC cannot claim to be neutral and seeking a two-state solution while punishing either side of this Middle-Eastern conflict. They cannot support a movement that their leader has called “polarizing, ineffective, and unhelpful” while also claiming their party wants to “continue to advocate for good-faith negotiations.”

Furthermore, the GPC tends to concentrate their efforts on domestic issues, like the rights of Indigenous peoples, LGBTQ+ rights, and the divestment from fossil fuels.

Elizabeth May continued this tendency when she told reporters at a press conference on Parliament Hill this past Monday that she was partially motivated to stay on as party leader to focus her energies on electoral reform. She added that there are many “well-meaning, well-intentioned groups” that support BDS, but a “serious” federal political party seeking to elect more members of parliament should not be one of them.

According to May, the August convention saw some motions pushed through without broad-based support from the party’s grassroots. She also believes that all policies should be enacted by consensus and is now advocating for a secondary confirmation vote by all members—whether online or by mail—of convention resolutions.

May is also committed to continuing to represent her riding of Saanich-Gulf Island and running in the next federal election in 2019.