Shaken confidence in party

Anna Keenan co-signed letter calling for resignation of two Green federal councillors

Recent strife among the Green Party of Canada spurred P.E.I. member Anna Keenan to co-sign an open letter asking two federal councillors to put their seats up for election.

A series of articles from the Toronto Star last month outlined internal obstacles faced by party leader Annamie Paul, the first Black party leader in Canada, with her former campaign manager, Sean Yo, naming the two councillors along with a third as being responsible.

Keenan — who was the 2019 federal green party candidate in Malpeque — and fellow 2019 green candidate Mike Morrice for Kitchener decided to post the open letter on April 29 after talking with other party members, said Keenan.

“We started to realize, you know what, we would like to see a change here, so that’s what prompted us to put our letter out.”

LETTERS

In the post, Keenan and Morrice said due to the Toronto Star reporting, along with internal events since, their “confidence has been shaken in the current federal council’s readiness to centre anti-racism in its governance”.

They called for vice-president John Kidder and fund representative Kate Storey to voluntarily step down ahead of federal council elections in the coming weeks, despite their terms being set to end next year.

The term of the third councillor, Manitoba representative Beverley Eert, will conclude this year.

Before making going public, Keenan and Morrice sent internal letters to the specific council members asking for action which never materialized, said Keenan.

“We had asked for change to be demonstrated and we had hoped that we would be able to see change and progress and resolution internally before feeling like we needed to make a public statement.”

On April 28, other party members, including Judy Green of Nova Scotia who ran for party leadership last year, released their own letter, which said Eert and Storey had been “slandered nationally,” and accused those calling for their resignations of being misogynists. It didn’t mention Kidder, who is also the husband of former party leader Elizabeth May.

Keenan characterized that letter as defensiveness, which is one of the greatest blocks to inclusion, she said.

“We need to be able to hear criticism to grow and learn and improve.”

Darcie Lanthier, who was on the federal council for just over four years and ran as the green candidate in Charlottetown in 2019, thought even less of it.

“I thought that letter was horrible ... Judy Green should never have sent this letter.”

SUPPORT

Stephanie Arnold, who belongs to a racialized community, volunteered with Keenan’s 2019 campaign, though isn’t a current member of the party. Still, she was thankful to see the two Green candidates go public, she said.

“I was glad that they both took the risk to speak openly about it ... and it was important for me to see that people were willing to stand up.”

While she didn’t experience any instances of racism from within the party, she saw it going door to door with Keenan and knows how critical it is to address systemic issues.

“I think it’s important for the Green party, as important as it is for every party, to make sure that social justice is a core value and that when they see something that does not support that value that they should speak up to rectify and correct it.”

With membership voting Paul in as the leader, Lanthier thinks the issue is more specifically with the council than with the party as a whole.

“The membership itself is well ahead on this, and I think the federal council needs to catch up.”