{"id":8624,"date":"2023-03-13T00:04:05","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T04:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=8624"},"modified":"2023-03-13T00:04:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T04:04:05","slug":"freak-show-in-hamilton-centre-byelection-privileged-minorities-fall-out-anti-semitism-allegations-disabled-lobbyist-lgtq-militant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=8624","title":{"rendered":"Freak Show in Hamilton Centre Byelection: Privileged Minorities Fall Out — Anti-Semitism Allegations; Disabled Lobbyist; LGTQ Militant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/politics\/provincial\/2023\/03\/12\/antisemitism-charges-upend-ontario-byelection-race-in-ndp-stronghold.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antisemitism charges upend Ontario byelection race in NDP stronghold<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was expected to be a smooth cruise to victory in the NDP stronghold of Hamilton Centre but the campaign has been buffeted by allegations of antisemitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob Ferguson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Rob FergusonQueen’s Park Bureau<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sun., March 12, 2023timer4 min. read<\/p>\n\n\n\n

updateArticle was updated 3 hrs ago<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HAMILTON \u2014 It was expected to be a smooth cruise to victory in a riding staunchly New Democrat for almost two decades under former party leader Andrea Horwath, who quit last year to become mayor of Steeltown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But accusations of antisemitism against NDP candidate Sarah Jama \u2014 which she denies \u2014 are buffeting the campaign in Thursday\u2019s Hamilton Centre byelection, putting the disability activist and the party\u2019s newly minted leader Marit Stiles on the defensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u2019nai Brith issued a statement Monday calling Jama \u201ca radical activist who has been associated with groups that have frequently targeted Israel,\u201d including the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, and urged Stiles to drop her as a candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jama acknowledged her own \u201cmessy history around anti-racism\u201d during a candidates\u2019 debate broadcast on local cable TV the next evening, but said \u201cnothing has been called out in terms of things that I\u2019ve said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That history includes ties to Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights during her student activist days at McMaster University. The group has called for a Palestinian state \u201cfrom the (Jordan) river to the sea\u201d \u2014 often interpreted as erasing the state of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMe standing up for Palestinian human rights \u2026 cannot be conflated with antisemitism,\u201d the founder of the Ontario Disability Justice Network added in an exchange that followed a question from a viewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really against antisemitism in our communities, but I\u2019m also for human rights, and that includes the rights of everybody, whether it\u2019s Black people \u2026 Indigenous people in our communities and Palestinian people,\u201d said Jama, 28, who campaigns in a power chair because she cannot walk after being born prematurely with cerebral palsy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing disabled gives me another lens of compassion. It\u2019s one thing to talk about supporting vulnerable community members, but it\u2019s another thing to share in those experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of her activist efforts, Jama was given a $100,000 ticket \u2014 and ripped it up \u2014 at a 2020 city hall protest in support of homeless people that violated COVID-19 stay-at-home laws, seemingly at odds with frequent New Democrat calls for Premier Doug Ford\u2019s government to maintain tight restrictions to limit spread of the virus. The charges were later dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jama was acclaimed the NDP candidate in November after running unopposed for the nomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stiles, whose New Democrats rebuked MPP Joel Harden (Ottawa Centre) last fall for antisemitic remarks before she became leader, fielded questions on Jama for three straight days at the legislature \u2014 with a nod to her \u201cmessy history\u201d remark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re at a rally, and we\u2019ve all found ourselves in these situations where you really can\u2019t control what somebody is doing over here and over there, you learn from that, right?\u201d Stiles told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSarah Jama is a well-known human rights activist who has always stood up against hate, antisemitism and racism and I look forward to welcoming her at Queen\u2019s Park.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liberal candidate Deirdre Pike, a training facilitator in the LGBTQ community and a former social justice planner in her second run at the riding after losing to Horwath in the 2018 provincial election, said Jama needs to do a better job \u201cclearing the air.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a problem when respectable organizations like B\u2019nai Brith are calling you out,\u201d added the 60-year-old who got a boost going door-to-door when 1,500 Liberals gathered in Hamilton last weekend to chart a course for picking a new leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSolutions to Israel need to come through diplomatic and negotiated solutions, not through, you know, extreme groups that use phrases that can be quite triggering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when Premier Doug Ford is facing criticism over opening the Greenbelt, a lack of affordable housing and a crisis in health care, the challenge is that the byelection campaign is garnering little attention, said McMaster University political scientist Peter Graefe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people are really talking about it,\u201d he told the Star. \u201cLocally, it\u2019s not much of a story but the parties are trying to use this as provincial messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser \u2014 whose party has eight MPPs at Queen\u2019s Park compared to the New Democrats with 30 \u2014 said concerns about Jama\u2019s candidacy are key to the tone Stiles is striking for the NDP in the wake of the Harden controversy in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a test of leadership.\u201d he told reporters at Queen\u2019s Park, urging Stiles to drop Jama. \u201cSometimes doing the right thing is really, really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harden was forced to apologize by former NDP interim leader Peter Tabuns for remarks at the August 2021 Ottawa Forum on Israel Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ottawa MPP said he has \u201casked many questions of Jewish neighbours here about how much longer we should put up with this \u2026 the single greatest threat, the single greatest origin of violence in the Middle East, it is unquestionably the state of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tabuns told reporters he was \u201cvery angry\u201d at Harden\u2019s \u201churtful\u201d comments about confronting Jewish neighbours over actions by the state of Israel, a tactic Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre president Michael Levitt called \u201ctextbook antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progressive Conservative candidate Pete Wiesner, 47, who skipped the cable debate to campaign in-person with voters, said the Jama situation is \u201ccertainly in people\u2019s decision-making process now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On leave from his job as a Hamilton police sergeant in the crisis response branch, which deals with marginalized communities like the homeless, Wiesner is hoping to build on Ford\u2019s outreach to labour that helped the PCs win additional seats in the June provincial election, including two in the former NDP stronghold of Windsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PC candidates finished a distant second in the riding in the last two provincial elections, with Liberals in third place and Greens in fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten candidates are running in Thursday\u2019s vote, according to Elections Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Deirdre Pike Liberal Candidate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/politics\/provincial\/2023\/03\/12\/antisemitism-charges-upend-ontario-byelection-race-in-ndp-stronghold.html Antisemitism charges upend Ontario byelection race in NDP stronghold It was expected to be a smooth cruise to victory in the NDP stronghold of Hamilton Centre but the campaign has been buffeted by allegations of antisemitism. Rob Ferguson By … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[219,1758,359,4699,4700],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8626,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624\/revisions\/8626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}