‘Target on my back’： Selina Robinson on the NDP’s surrender to antisemites
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Summary
Selina Robinson was a dedicated New Democrat, a woman who was elected more than a decade ago, who served under two different premiers and four different cabinet posts, and then was summarily thrown out of the party that she had been part of for so long over comments that shouldn t have caused any criticism or concern.
Transcript
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Selina Robinson was a dedicated New Democrat, a woman who was elected more than a decade ago
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who served under two different premiers and four different cabinet posts, and then
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was summarily thrown out of the party that she had been part of for so long over comments that
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shouldn't have caused any criticism or concern at all. Hello, I'm Brian Lilly, and this is the Full
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Comment Podcast, and today we're going to look at the issue of anti-Semitism in the NDP, a party that
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was at one time very much a home for Jewish Canadians, but at this point is somewhere that
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most of them don't feel at home. Selina Robinson joins us from Coquitlam. Selina, thanks for the time
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today. Thanks for having me. Let's walk through what exactly happened with you. End of January,
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you're doing a panel discussion, and you make a comment. What did you say that became the launch
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pad for an all-out assault on you? Well, I was trying to represent the West and trying to represent
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a female voice and trying to represent a New Democrat voice on a panel that was all-male,
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all-East coast, as we say here on the West Coast, and there was certainly no New Democrat on the
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panel, and we were talking about anti-Semitism. And who was hosting the panel? It was B'nai B'rith.
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B'nai B'rith was hosting the panel, and we were talking about anti-Semitism and the rise of anti-Semitism
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since October 7th. And in my little bit that I had, I was the last speaker and so really had to
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rush through my comments, reflecting on the data that's been coming out that 18 to 34-year-olds
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here in Canada are not familiar with the Holocaust, are not familiar with the creation of the state of
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Israel in 1948. They don't have, you know, solid understanding of how things transpire. They don't
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have the history knowledge. And I was talking about that people don't understand that, and they
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didn't understand that the land of Israel, and I was speaking directly about the land, and I said,
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and it became a meme, is that it was a crappy piece of land. And really focusing on, yes, there
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were several hundred thousand people living there, but there were no, and really, there were no minerals,
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there's no gas, there's no, no oil, no water. You know, it was really strong agriculture at the time.
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No strong agriculture. There was subsistence farming for sure. There was some farming. I'm not saying that
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there was nothing, but really it wasn't, it didn't have a strong economy on those lands itself. And
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frankly, my reading and my understanding of history is that the Ottomans were poor land stewards, and there
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was a lot of swampland and a lot of desert. And that recording was grabbed by folks who are frankly
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anti-Israel, and used that and promoted that as somehow me suggesting that Muslims, and Palestinian
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Muslims in particular who were living there, were somehow bad people in some way, or that there was
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nobody living there, that that was the other, the other focus that people had. And it was, and that's not
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at all what I intended. I recognized that people were hurt by my comments. It wasn't my, I intended.
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But at their core, at their core, there is nothing inaccurate about your comment. If, if you know
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the mildest bit of history of the region, you know that to be true. And I was in Israel a couple of months
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years ago, down in areas around, in the Gaza envelope, as they call it, visiting some of the
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kibbutzes that were attacked. And there's wonderful farming now, and then you look across the, past the
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fence, and there's no farming, there's no agriculture, and the land is, is not as prosperous. There is
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something to what happened when Israel went in and said, we need to make this land productive.
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And they did. It's the same parcel of land. It's, it's the same area. They just did something
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different. And, and people have talked about that for generations. I learned about it in school. So
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there's, was nothing fundamentally incorrect about your comment. And you apologized for it, what, twice?
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Twice. I, you know, and, and, and, and heartfelt. Like I, my intent, Ryan, wasn't to, to hurt anybody. And if
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people were hurt by my comments, I want to understand their hurt. I want to fix it. I want to make sure
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that I have full understanding. I'm not a historian. It's not my background. And so, you know, if they
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want to talk with me to help to correct the record, so to speak, I'm, I'm, I'm all ears. But what happened
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was what I would suggest is mob mentality. And of course, we're seeing it right across Canada. We're
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seeing it across the states and certainly Western Europe as well, where the anti-Israel
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sentiment has taken up in, in, and I'll say a lot of progressive circles. And, and it's, and it's vicious.
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And the attacks on me were vicious. And it resulted in my colleagues and the premier saying to me that
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they couldn't see a path forward other than my resignation as a cabinet minister.
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And this is the part that bothers me because I can understand
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the mob trying to do what they did. And you've been around politics a while. So if I have not been an elected
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official, but I, I observe you people. I watch what parties do to each other. I watch what movements do to
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each other. And, and a movement or a party will latch onto absolutely anything to try and gain
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advantage for a party leader, especially someone in a position of premier, the way David Eby was to
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fall for that mob mentality is extremely disappointing to me. You wrote your open letter about the hurt
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within the party, but can you talk to me for a minute about what it was like when you spoke to
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the premier, when you tried to make him understand, or, and he was trying to tell you that there's no
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way forward. Did, did you get the sense that he believed that you had done something wrong or that he
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was just resigned to handing over the direction of the British Columbia, New Democratic Party to an angry mob?
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Um, well, you know, in the, in the early, in the early days, like right after, um, the, the clip
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was sort of had gone viral, um, you know, I'd had conversations with the premier, with his staff.
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Um, and it was like, okay, what, you know, there, there was certainly, I'll say, um, angst and panic,
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almost panic, not quite panic about like, okay, let's just, let's do an apology. This is what we're
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going to do this. I mean, and I let them frame it, um, because I wanted to get it right. Um, and I
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wanted things to settle down. We all did. Um, this is not, you know, I didn't sign up to, um, you know,
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to defend, um, um, you know, a conflict in the Middle East. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a provincial
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politician. I'm interested in healthcare. I'm interested in housing. I'm interested in affordability.
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Um, I'm interested in building community and strengthening community, but this was not what I
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signed up for. And so it was eager to just get like, what, what do these people need to hear
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from me so that they can understand that my intent was not to hurt anybody or insult anybody. Um, and
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so we went, we went through that. Um, but it was really a couple of days later when there was still
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a call. Um, there were about six imams that were threatening the, the, the, um, the new Democrats
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saying that, you know, there's an election, you won't be allowed to come into our mosques, which I
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thought was, um, again, very disappointing from leaders who are wanting peace. This is not how
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you, how you move in that direction. Um, and the, the premier basically, you know, said, you know,
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he talked with my colleagues, um, at a, at a caucus meeting, I wasn't there and he just came back
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saying, Selena, I just, I, I, I can't see a path forward without a resignation. Cause I said,
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you know, if you want my resignation, I won't fight you on it, but you have to ask me for it.
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Um, and he, he just said, I can't see a path forward without that.
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And so I said, well, if that's what you're asking, and if that's what the caucus wants,
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then I guess I will have to provide you with my resignation. Uh, we had a little bit of a
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battle. I would, well, not really a battle. We had a little bit of a discussion around,
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um, cause I said, then you, you need to announce that you've asked my resignation and I gave it.
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And that wasn't sufficient for the premier or his office. Um, and so we agreed that it would be a
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joint decision, but really it was the joint decision was, they said, you need to, you need
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to resign in order to settle this down. Uh, what, what was really hurtful, Brian, it was a, a clip
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in the days following when the premier, you know, sort of carried on about deep work that I needed to
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do. Um, which I thought was really disrespectful of me as a person. Um, he knows me, um, and that he carried
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on in a very dramatic way, I think was disingenuous.
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This is someone that you've sat in caucus with for years.
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And so a colleague of, of more than a decade stabbing you in the front.
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Well, he didn't stab you in the back, he stabbed you in the front.
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Well, that's part of what broke my heart, right? When I, you know, that's why, I mean, I, I hung
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around caucus for the next month, uh, two weeks in, um, in Victoria, because we were back in session.
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I sat through, um, listening to, um, the anti-Israel crowd at, during throne speech at the front of the
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building, chanting for, you know, chanting river to the sea. Um, I, um, met with two Jewish women who,
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who are lobbyists who were coming to throne speech, um, who talked about how fearful they were to come
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into the house of the people, um, to get through the mob. One of them actually asked for an escort
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into the building from security. Um, I was horrified having to listen to that all day, uh, from my office,
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because I could hear it. Um, and nobody said anything. Nobody said, Selina, are you okay?
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Nobody said, this is outrageous. They're literally calling for the destruction of, of the 11 million
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people who call Israel home. Um, and, um, nobody thought that that would be hard.
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I, I, I have to say that, uh, you know, uh, having covered politics so long, I, I, I, it's not that I
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don't have a high opinion of me. I don't want to give that impression. People are very cynical about
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politicians. I, I, most people of all stripes go into politics for the right reason and, and are
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trying to do honorable work, but I'm trying to figure out how to describe how David Eby treated you
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that doesn't use words like dishonorable, cowardice, um, shameful.
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From, when I wrote my letter in to caucus two weeks after we'd been back in the house,
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because I thought, okay, let's, let me see if I can, um, find a path forward that allows me to do
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the things that are important to me. The reasons why I became a politician was to make things better
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for people. And as you said, you're a provincial politician. Yeah. David Eby's not there to find
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peace in the Middle East. Um, none of you are at the provincial legislature. It's not a provincial
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issue. Exactly. Exactly. And so for me, it was like, okay, I still have a platform. I'm still a new
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Democrat. I still am an MLA. I want to be useful. I am very well connected to the Jewish community here
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in British Columbia. I think I can engage enough of the Jewish community. And if I can find a way
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to engage enough of the Arab Muslim community here, can we find a way to have conversation,
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to break bread together, to listen to each other's pain so that we can influence here in British
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Columbia, the relationships between people. And really it was when the chief, when the premier's
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chief of staff said, no, it's too political that I knew that I couldn't stay. I couldn't stay
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because we'd lost our way, um, to why we're here. We're here to make things better for the people
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here in British Columbia. And we're not doing that when we give into these hordes, um, who are
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demanding something that's thousands of miles away from this government. Um, and when, when it's not
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our bailiwick and... And you had been asked and tasked by both David Eby and his predecessor,
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Premier John Horgan, to do outreach in these communities, correct? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean,
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I, I mean, I'm, I'm very well saturated in the Jewish community. Um, you know, I've, I've worked in the
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Jewish community, Jewish family services, and I've, you know, I know, I know a lot of those, a lot of
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those folks, it's a small community here in British Columbia, about 40,000, um, Jews here, um, somewhat
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spread out, but, you know, there's certainly a core group that, you know, all of the, the, the
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organizations, I know all the rabbis, so really have, have good relationship and have been navigating
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challenging issues that have arisen over, um, the years, uh, over the, the 11 years that I've,
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I've been elected, whether it's making sure that Premier Horgan, um, knew what to say at a
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Kristallnacht, you know, ceremony, or that, you know, lighting the Hanukkah menorah, making sure
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that we had representation, um, that people, um, you know, understood the needs of the Jewish
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community. There certainly have been ongoing security issues over the years, completely
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heightened now. And in the early days of the, of the fall, after the, the massacre, October 7th,
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um, you know, connecting with the Premier, making sure he's, you know, talking with the right
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people hearing the story from the principal of our local Talmud Torah and her, in that first week
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after October 7th, her wearing running shoes to school, um, and the teachers all doing that just
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in case they needed to run. Um, and that impacted David as a, as a human being, he, he retold that
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story. Um, and so that was, you know, the work that I had been tasked to do on behalf of government
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is to make sure that the right people were in the room to, um, to get the ear of government.
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And so I had been doing that work, um, since October 7th as well. And it was heightened,
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right? It was heightened. There was a, there was a mix up on Holocaust Remembrance Day. I don't know
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if it made national news. It did. It did. Well, you know, that was me working all weekend,
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trying to reaching out to the Premier's office and saying, what the heck happened? And this is who
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you need to talk to. And this is how you need to present it. And, you know, and try and helping
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them get the language right so that the community would say, okay, we understand the mix up. You're
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forgiven. Don't do it again. Um, and that seemed, and that was enough. It was expected to be enough
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for the Jewish community. And there have been other instances among my caucus colleagues who have said
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things in ways that were hurtful to the Jewish community. Um, and there's a pattern. There's a,
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there's been, I would say, you know, eight or 10 instances over a number of years. Um, and each
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time, you know, people, pretty much each time people ask forgiveness, um, and it was given,
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it was granted, um, or the expectation was, uh, an apology would be sufficient. Not all of my
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colleagues have apologized for the words that they have spoken, but many of them have.
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And I'd forgotten that the, the premier had put out that tweet and I understand premiers rarely
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writing their own posts or experts, but on Holocaust Remembrance Day, he said that, you know,
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concerned, I forget the exact wording. We can find it online. I'm sure made a comment about the rise of
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Islamophobia. And these were his words on Holocaust Remembrance Day. He was forgiven and you were not.
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Yes. You wrote in a piece that was carried at National Post that your caucus colleagues broke your
00:18:05.080
heart. Yeah. But it wasn't over this incident. What was it? Well, I mean, it was coming for some time.
00:18:14.580
Um, I think, um, the, the, over the, over the, certainly over the years, there had been, um, um,
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you know, comments made, anti-Israel comments made for sure. Um, um, the minimization of
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anti-Semitism and the way it's playing out that, that, you know, um, anti-Zionism is in many ways,
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the new anti-Semitism. That's certainly, you know, what we're seeing. Um, but it was their silence,
00:18:46.080
right? So, um, and I, and it wasn't, I don't think it was intentional, but I, you know, I, I just
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provided the example of me sitting in my office alone while people were chanting from the river to
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the sea, right outside my office. There was no space for me to not, to not hear that because I,
00:19:05.740
that's where I was doing my work and nobody said anything to me. Um, the fact that, um, I, you know,
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I put out, people were sending me heart emojis, right? I mean, I, I believe my caucus colleagues,
00:19:18.680
my ex-caucus colleagues really liked me and cared for me. I don't doubt that. But when they would send
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me these heart emojis, cause I knew that I was struggling and I'd say, I don't need your heart
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emojis. I need you to stand up to anti-Semitism where you see it. And I got a response back from
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one of my colleagues that says, of course we always do. And I thought, no, you don't. You have been
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absolutely silent on this, silent on this. And that to me, and so it's not, it's, it's not like
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they're saying anti-Semitic things to anybody. And I don't believe they dislike Jews, but their
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silence is dangerous. It's dangerous. And that's the part that worries me. And that breaks my heart
00:20:07.180
because these people I believe are more courageous than that. What would you like them to have said,
00:20:15.640
said something publicly or said something to you? Both. I think, I think, I think what I would have
00:20:23.800
appreciated was them standing up for me and not asking for me to resign. Cause I think that would
00:20:29.200
have been a statement. That would have been a statement that said, Selina's been an excellent
00:20:36.400
colleague. She's been a good cabinet minister. We appreciate that people are upset. Her apology is
00:20:43.020
sufficient. And no, we're not, we're going to, we're going to have her back. We're going to have her back.
00:20:49.040
But they didn't. They didn't. We have to take a quick break now, but when we come back, I do want
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to ask you about the NDP used to be a party where when I was younger, I remember Jewish leaders of
00:21:05.300
new democratic parties across the country. And now it seems to be anti-Semitism is a real problem in
00:21:12.220
the party. I want to explore that with you. More of that when we come back. When I was a kid,
00:21:17.580
I would not have expected the idea of anti-Semitism being rampant in the NDP because
00:21:23.180
the NDP was the party that had Jewish leaders. Now I can't imagine there being a Jewish leader of
00:21:29.640
an NDP, a new Democrat party, whether it's federal or provincial. Selina, you think back,
00:21:37.320
the federal party at the time I was born was David Lewis. Stephen Lewis ended up being a provincial
00:21:44.720
leader, but you've got Dave Barrett out in British Columbia, leader of the British Columbia NDP.
00:21:51.040
A strong connection between the Jewish community and the NDP. And overall, I would say the progressive
00:22:00.020
politicians, left-wing politicians, however you want to phrase it. And over the last several years,
00:22:07.760
I've had to cover rampant anti-Semitism in the Ontario NDP where I'm based, less so at the federal,
00:22:16.080
thankfully. But I've talked to many members who have been activists within the party who have just
00:22:22.660
said, I'm done. I'm leaving. My politics remains the same, but my party is different. Did you grow up
00:22:32.200
a new Democrat? Were you always involved in progressive politics? Have things changed for
00:22:38.700
you as a Jewish Canadian and a progressive? So I was, I mean, I think I've always been
00:22:45.420
progressive, but I've never been partisan until about 2012. So really a late, a latecomer in many
00:22:54.140
ways to partisan politics. And I will say, and, you know, I don't think, I don't feel like I've left
00:23:02.860
my party. I think my party left me. And I've, and, and certainly I've always believed that, you know,
00:23:10.660
and I've been saying this for many years, that Jewish values are new Democrat values. I, you know,
00:23:14.640
I see this, I see similarities in terms of the values that I've taken on as a Jewish person,
00:23:19.260
but I've also seen growing antisemitism and in, within progressive circles. And I have connected
00:23:30.380
with federal new Democrat, Jewish new Democrats across the country over the last number of years,
00:23:36.460
you know, trying to work within the party to, to address the antisemitism that we were seeing.
00:23:42.560
Um, but they've all abandoned it. It's just been too hard and too painful. Um, and so it's, it's at the
00:23:50.400
point now where, uh, progressive Jews feel like myself, a lot of us feel very homeless, um, because it is
00:23:58.280
our, um, our, our, our, our party of, I'll say a party of choice because there's no perfect party. Brian does
00:24:05.680
no perfect party. There's only a best party of best fit. Um, but it doesn't fit. And I, and I think
00:24:11.520
that for, um, a lot of folks and a lot of new Democrats, they see Jews as oppressors. And I,
00:24:19.800
and I'm trying to understand what that means, right? Oppressor is bad, um, in, in that way, but I, I,
00:24:27.920
you know, where they see Jews as white. Uh, and it's interesting. I was talking to my son not too long
00:24:32.000
ago where we're talking about, you know, the right wing extremism says, you know, Jews aren't white
00:24:37.200
enough and left wing extreme extremism says Jews are too white. Um, and this is, you know, this is
00:24:45.320
the identity politics challenge that I think we're faced with and, and the extreme places that those
00:24:51.960
positions are coming from. Um, and it's all, and, and in some ways it feels like it's all, why is it
00:24:56.340
always the Jews? The, it's funny that the definition of white has changed over the years and you're
00:25:05.940
right at one point, um, uh, Italians weren't considered white, Greeks weren't, uh, the Irish weren't
00:25:12.660
considered white and Jews definitely weren't white. And these were all groups that, uh, the, the extremists
00:25:18.300
would go after and target. And, and now because Israel is seen as being successful in this oppressor,
00:25:27.580
oppressed mentality, uh, Jews are therefore the oppressor and it, it is an odd mentality, uh, that,
00:25:37.660
that has taken over. And as far as Jews being white, you know, these people really should go to Israel
00:25:44.700
and they should, they should go to a synagogue in Canada and look around. It is a bizarre take,
00:25:51.500
but you're right. It's something that it's almost as if, um, being anti-Israel and by extension,
00:26:01.160
extension anti-Semitic, because I do think they go hand in hand. You can absolutely criticize Israel.
00:26:06.980
And, and I heard lots of people do that in Israel, criticizing the government, et cetera. But it seems like
00:26:14.200
it is a shibboleth to be able to, uh, you know, wink, wink that you're one of us if you're anti-Israel
00:26:21.160
and against the Zionist oppressor. Exactly. And, and really, you know, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism
00:26:28.080
have become, you know, linked hand in hand. It's sort of the, the delegitimization of Israel,
00:26:33.440
is what is being, um, asked for by, um, you know, a lot of this left wing, uh, you know,
00:26:44.140
extremist position. Um, and I keep saying like, so why, like, like I, I, you know, and I, and I look
00:26:51.200
at, I look at other conflicts that are happening in the world, Brian, and it's like, where are your
00:26:56.320
voices as progressives? They're predicting that 30 million people are going to die in Sudan over the
00:27:02.400
next few years because of a conflict there. And I have not seen a single progressive person, um,
00:27:10.000
bring that forward to the house of commons about where is our government on that conflict or the
00:27:16.340
Uyghurs. I just read in today's paper, um, you know, the fact that slave labor is happening in China
00:27:22.080
and I don't see a BDS movement, um, to stop doing business with China, uh, because they are using
00:27:28.680
slave labor of Uyghurs, Muslim Uyghurs. And I don't see an uprising for those people who are being
00:27:36.040
oppressed by governments. Um, and, uh, but somehow we are all obsessed, um, with what's happening in
00:27:46.180
Israel. Well, I think people of, of good faith across the political spectrum are concerned about
00:27:52.060
the issues that you raised, but you're right. There, there, there are not demands for a ceasefire
00:27:57.320
now in Sudan. There are not demands for the BDS movement, um, uh, the slave labor in China. Um,
00:28:05.040
the prime minister's, uh, top advisor for the longest time and then ambassador to China, David Barton,
00:28:11.420
ran a company that advised on, you know, and held a, a company retreat right near where, where the,
00:28:19.860
the Uyghur slave camps were, um, that gets passing mention in the media now and again.
00:28:25.740
It does not, uh, result in outright protests and motions and denunciations and the streets being
00:28:33.620
flooded. This is what we call the double standard. Like this is a double standard. So some, so,
00:28:40.280
and I'm not, and trust me, I am so, um, frustrated and angry with the Israeli government and the choices
00:28:47.180
that the current government continues to make. I think it is a terrible government. I think
00:28:52.920
Netanyahu, she belongs in jail. Um, so, uh, and so I am eager to criticize their policies. Um, but
00:29:02.080
somehow Israel is taking, it has to abide by a different standard than other, than other governments.
00:29:09.480
And that to me is, so what's that about? And I think that's what we get to be curious about.
00:29:15.560
The other thing, Brian, that I think is important to, to, to note, um, and if you take a look at,
00:29:21.260
um, the federal party's new Democrat, um, resolutions that they've had over the years, um, at their
00:29:28.260
conventions, if you take a look at the, the, the top, uh, resolutions that, you know, cause they all go
00:29:33.600
in order. I have been blown away at the number of anti-Israel resolutions that will be in the top
00:29:40.240
30, uh, something like 50, 60% of them. Um, and nothing is mentioned about China, about Iran,
00:29:49.660
about any other nation, but there's like this obsession, this anti-Israel obsession. And,
00:29:54.960
and I've called them, I've called the chair of the resolution committee saying, what is going on?
00:29:59.560
Yes. Have one or two, but really like 16 of your top 30 are, are about Israel. Um, and they,
00:30:07.360
and the response is, it has been ever thus. And that's a quote. And I thought, you don't even care
00:30:12.800
to question what is going on here. That's really sad. You know, when, when we look at what has happened
00:30:22.240
on university campuses, where a lot of this has spread, I think back to just over 20 years ago,
00:30:28.220
covering the student union at Concordia university in Montreal, and they had gone full on intifada.
00:30:39.140
In fact, they published a student handbook called the intifada. They would march into their student
00:30:44.300
union meetings with a snare drum and a Palestinian flag leading them in. Um, that school was the outlier
00:30:54.580
at the time though, with how radical it was on this issue. And you wouldn't have seen that in the same
00:31:01.700
way at university of Toronto, at UBC, at UVic, at university Calgary, that radicalism though, has
00:31:10.820
definitely spread across the country. Our institutes of higher education have been used by people with an
00:31:18.100
agenda to spread these, um, this hatred. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I was the minister for post-secondary
00:31:27.460
education. So I was in the thick of it. Um, and, uh, working across the nation, um, I want to give
00:31:33.940
props to Steven Lecce, who is the chair of the, um, ministers of education right across the nation. And,
00:31:40.140
um, and he and I were working collaboratively and inviting other ministers of post-secondary education
00:31:46.460
across the nation to come up with some strategies to how to support presidents, um, to do the right
00:31:52.140
thing. And some were doing better than others. Um, and, um, I think it's a, it's a, it's a,
00:31:58.140
it's a significant challenge, but yet again, I have to say, Brian, this is, you know, if I can just
00:32:02.900
bring it back to British Columbia again, and the lack of response from government, um, when, uh,
00:32:08.420
a prominent physician, uh, Ted, Dr. Ted Rosenberg, uh, made a very public leaving of, uh, leaving
00:32:14.780
UBC medical school and saying, um, it's a toxic work environment. Um, there's 288 Jewish physicians
00:32:23.140
signed the letter basically saying, we can't train these UBC medical students who are coming and
00:32:29.080
bringing their hate to the healthcare system. Um, and I, we heard nothing from government. There was
00:32:34.460
no response. There was no response to like, what are we going to do? We have to train more doctors.
00:32:39.440
I was tasked with opening up another medical school here in British Columbia.
00:32:43.720
And if we didn't have doctors to take on these residents, what were we going to do?
00:32:50.560
Do you believe that your push when you were minister of education, um, to have mandatory Holocaust
00:32:58.360
education in the school system was part of why you were targeted?
00:33:03.420
Um, I think it's more than that. Actually, I, I, I think, I think it's probably beyond that. I mean,
00:33:09.300
we were, uh, I want to give props to my colleague, Rob Fleming, who was minister of education in 2017.
00:33:13.800
He started that work and COVID took it off the table for a bit. And I, I was the one actually who
00:33:19.160
went back and, and, and did pick it up. Um, I was minister of post-secondary education. So really
00:33:24.100
had to talk to the minister of education. Uh, I really did it through the premier's office. Um,
00:33:28.660
it's the right, it's the right move. But that night that we announced it, uh, I believe it was October
00:33:34.260
30th. Um, I was interviewed by a local, um, by TV station here. Um, and I was, um, asked to comment
00:33:44.280
on, uh, a Langara, um, instructor who had made outrageous comments right after the October 7th
00:33:55.160
They are horrendous and despicable. And I reiterated that that night. And of course it
00:34:02.000
was on, uh, it was broadcast and, um, there is some suspicion of some who've been doing a
00:34:09.640
little bit of research, um, have noted that in fact, that's when, um, the protests accelerated
00:34:17.560
against me. Um, personally, I was named, I was starting to be named.
00:34:22.460
Um, and a petition was starting to circulate to get me removed from cabinet. So my hunch
00:34:30.140
and the hunch of others is that there was a target on my back, uh, at that night that
00:34:36.060
started, um, and it culminated and the opportunity arose at the B'nai B'rith, um, um, panel that
00:34:43.160
I was on. Um, and that was the opportunity to take, you know, full frontal action to, to
00:34:49.200
do a push to have me removed. And unfortunately my colleagues in the premier, um, fell for it.
00:34:56.880
For people that don't recall the, the Langara college instructor, um, who made the comments
00:35:04.260
described the October 7th attacks as an amazing, brilliant offensive just after the attacks when
00:35:12.880
not just so close to the attacks that we didn't know what had happened. Hamas had clearly broadcast
00:35:20.120
their own atrocities. We all knew what had happened, but Natalie Knight still called this a, an amazing,
00:35:26.840
brilliant offensive. Um, she was let go by Langara college after that, which I big supporter of free
00:35:36.920
speech, but there's also, uh, organizations have to practice good political hygiene. Um, it, it,
00:35:44.120
I always used the term political hygiene, meaning removing yourself from people or organizations
00:35:49.800
that will leave you with a bad smell in. Did, did premier EB fall for a mob that is linked up with
00:36:01.560
people like Natalie Knight, the, the radicals. I mean, is, is he tying the NDP's wagon to a,
00:36:10.120
a group of people that are so radical that the, the average British Columbian who would vote NDP
00:36:17.000
or, uh, United, uh, United BC, I forget what they, um, who, you know, look, you win elections on swing
00:36:27.720
voters. Uh, I don't think the average swing voter is going to look at what this woman said and look
00:36:35.320
at the mob that she's with and say, yeah, that's, that's who I want to be with. And I,
00:36:39.880
I, and I want them to have influence with my government. Well, you know, I'm going to leave
00:36:44.920
that up to the voters to decide. Um, but what I can tell you, Brian is that, you know, I, um,
00:36:50.920
I live in some, in suburban community. I represent a suburban community. And in the six weeks that since
00:36:58.120
I have been, you know, asked to, to provide a resignation and then did a very public leaving
00:37:05.240
of the party that frankly left me, um, my community has wrapped its arms around me. They are supportive
00:37:12.040
of me. They are proud of me. They appreciate the work that I've done. They appreciate the sacrifices
00:37:17.560
I've made to represent them. They have felt very well represented. Um, and that to me, those are the
00:37:24.280
people that matter most to me, frankly, um, the people that I represent and it will be up to them to
00:37:29.800
decide, um, where they want to hitch their wagon to, um, in October. Do you plan to run as an
00:37:37.800
independent in October? No, I, I, I, although people have been urging me to, um, which is very,
00:37:43.800
very sweet and thoughtful, but I'd already decided to not run. Um, so I had, it was 50, 50 in the summer
00:37:49.320
and I had let the premier know, uh, back in, um, in December that I wasn't going to run again. He was,
00:37:55.480
he expressed surprise at that. Um, and I, um, uh, yeah, I, yeah, I, I've given 16 years to public
00:38:05.160
service. Um, and I think it's time to do something else. Well, uh, best of luck in future endeavors.
00:38:13.080
Uh, politics is a tough business on anyone and, um, uh, you've definitely experienced the work parts
00:38:21.240
of it over the past few months. So thanks for the time today, Selena, and all the best in the future.
00:38:26.120
Thank you. It was really great to, um, to chat with you.
00:38:29.240
Full Comment is a post-media podcast. My name is Brian Lilly, your host. This episode was produced by
00:38:34.680
Andre Pru. Theme music by Bryce Hall. Kevin Libin is the executive producer. You can subscribe to Full
00:38:41.160
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00:38:56.120
Thanks for listening until next time. I'm Brian Lilly.