The B.C. NDP cancelled a fundraiser planned for Sunday night in Surrey in light of the growing calls for cabinet minister Selina Robinson to resign.
“We heard from the community that it is not the time for a celebratory event. We have some work to do,” party spokesperson Heather Libby told Postmedia News Sunday.
Robinson is under fire for comments she made during an online discussion Jan. 30 where she said Israel was founded on “a crappy piece of land with nothing on it.”
The two-hour discussion was hosted by B’nai B’rith Canada and posted on YouTube.
She said “regular people” should not be weighing on a conflict between two “Indigenous nations,” comparing the conflict between Jews and Palestinians to a fight between the Tsleil-Waututh and the Squamish First Nations over land.
Leaders from more than a dozen B.C. mosques and Islamic associations have written to Premier David Eby, urging him to remove Robinson from her role as post-secondary education minister.
They said no B.C. NDP MLA or candidate for the next election is welcome in their sacred spaces until the premier takes “restitutive action that acknowledges the deep hurt in our communities.”
“Ultimately, what it comes down to is, does the B.C. NDP condone these attitudes toward any equity-deserving group, let alone Palestinian Arab and Muslim communities that are already at greater risk of harm?” they wrote. “We cannot allow a minister to spread hateful rhetoric in our community without any consequences.”
The faith leaders have joined Palestinian-Canadians, the Independent Jewish Voices Canada, Indigenous leaders, and a federal NDP MP who have called on Robinson to be booted from cabinet.
A protest group plans to be outside the B.C. NDP caucus retreat in Surrey on Monday to present an 11,000 signature petition calling for Robinson’s ouster.
Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley, said the B.C. NDP’s decision to cancel the fundraiser is a clear indication the public outrage is reverberating.
Robinson has apologized for her remarks, which she acknowledged were “disrespectful.”
She said she was referring to the fact that the land has limited natural resources, but “I understand that this flippant comment has caused pain and that it diminishes the connection Palestinians also have to the land.”
Eby said Friday that Robinson’s comments “crossed a line” and stoked divisions in communities.
“They increase the feelings of alienation of groups of people, especially people of Palestinian descent and people who are concerned about the death and the destruction in Palestine that is happening right now,” he said.
Eby would not say if Robinson offered to resign or if he contemplated firing her but said she “has work to do” in repairing the damage her remarks caused.
Telford said Eby’s strong criticism of Robinson was an attempt to “convey the gravity of the situation to the community in hopes that that would sort of assuage some of the concerns, that he took it seriously and sort of condemned her without letting her go. But that might not be enough.”
Telford believes Robinson’s interference with the employment of a Langara College instructor is a more serious issue than her comments on the Israel-Hamas war.
The Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of B.C. and the Canadian Association of University Teachers released a letter Thursday calling for Robinson to be removed from her role overseeing post-secondary education, following comments she made about the firing by Langara College of instructor Natalie Knight.
At a speech at a pro-Palestinian rally in October in Vancouver, Knight referred to the Hamas attack in Israel that killed 1,400 Israelis, including children, as “the amazing, brilliant offensive waged on Oct. 7.”
Knight was subsequently dismissed after Robinson met with Langara leadership to express her concerns. Robinson said on social media that she was “disappointed that this instructor continues to have a public post-secondary platform to spew hatred and vitriol.”
Telford said with the provincial election set for October, the B.C. NDP wants to keep the focus on the upcoming throne speech and budget on Feb. 22.
That, of course, is what the government wanted to use to showcase themselves ahead of the election,” he said. “And this is proving to be a distraction at a critical time.”
