Annamie Paul, Green Party leader, faces internal sabotage after her pro-Israel stance in May’s Israel-Hamas tensions triggered backlash—her staff was fired, funding withheld, and a confidence vote canceled ahead of September’s federal election. The party sued her in Ontario Superior Court, claiming the arbitrator overstepped by blocking membership review, while Jenica Atwin’s defection to the Liberals exposed deeper ideological fractures. Paul’s exclusion from June’s anti-Semitism summit, despite being Jewish, highlights the party’s contradictions, with David Menzies suggesting its core aligns more with radical rhetoric than progressive values. Meanwhile, Toronto’s Fearless Boxing Club bans vaccinated patrons, framing it as protection for unvaccinated professionals like doctors, though critics call it a stunt, mirroring global debates over vaccine mandates and personal autonomy. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, what's the deal with the Green Party of Canada?
I'm David Menzies.
This is Friday, July 23rd, 2021, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say is government.
But why publish them?
It is because it's my bloody right to do so.
As Kermit the Frog once crooned, it's not easy being green.
Just ask Anime Paul, the leader of the federal Green Party.
Well, for now, at least.
Anime is under attack these days, which isn't unusual when it comes to the blood sport that is politics.
It's just that the attacks are coming from within her own party, mutiny style.
Gee, when was the last time we saw these sorts of shenanigans unfold in Canadian politics?
Actually, I think it was back in January 2018.
Remember when crybaby Patrick Brown was ousted as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party?
Well, the party had no choice really other than to stage a palace coup.
After all, Brown had thrown social conservatives under the bus, and then he threw fiscal conservatives under the bus.
And when there were no more conservatives to be thrown under the bus, well, guess what?
Brown himself was thrown under the old greyhound by his own colleagues.
Oh, and then there were those allegations of sexual misconduct.
A couple hours ago, I learned about troubling allegations about my conduct and character, and I'm here tonight to address them.
First, I want to say these allegations are false, categorically untrue, every one of them.
I will defend myself as hard as I can with all means at my disposal.
It's never okay, it's never okay for anyone to feel they've been a victim of sexual harassment or feel threatened in any way.
Let me make this clear.
A safe and respectful society is what we expect and deserve.
And no one appreciates that more than I do.
I've got two younger sisters who are my best friends.
I've grown up in a family that has taught me good values.
Yeah, right.
What followed next was this Jabroni making a hasty retreat out of the rear stairwell of Queen's Park and into a salt-covered minivan.
It was a scene somewhat reminiscent of Cersei's walk of shame in Game of Thrones.
Now, like I said, tossing that narcissist Brown upon the scrap heap of obsolescence was a necessity if the PCs wanted to actually win the 2018 election, that is.
Brown, after all, was a disaster in the making.
But enough about that lying liar loser, because at a press conference last Monday in Toronto, Green Party leader Anami Paul told reporters she hopes that those in the party who do not like her leadership will wait until, quote, a more appropriate time, end quote, in which to challenge her.
Quote, we see that we have candidates that are ready to get going and none of us need this distraction.
So I'm certainly hoping that this is the end of this, end quote.
Indeed, according to media reports, the Green Party's governing body was planning on holding a confidence vote on Paul's leadership.
This would also entail reviewing her membership in the party.
But those plans were canceled, no doubt, due to the looming federal election that seems very likely sometime in September.
And make no mistake, this was not a complete victory for Paul.
The Green Party executive fired the staff in Paul's office and it did not release any funding to support her writing campaign.
Gee, what a fascinating election strategy.
Yet the question is why?
Why the acrimony?
Why the infighting?
Why this seeming hate on for Miss Paul?
Now, I did reach out to Anami Paul for an interview.
Unfortunately, she declined.
That's too bad, especially since the unspoken reason why so many Greens are turning red with rage regarding Ms. Paul has everything to do with her opinions regarding MIDI's policy?
Oh, yes.
When tensions were hitting a boiling point with Israel and Hamas back in May, Paul issued a statement calling for a de-escalation and a return to dialogue.
That sounds rational, but not to the progressive Israel haters in the Green Party, of which there appears to be many.
Indeed, there are also rumblings of full-out anti-Semitism within the party.
And I think this hate really ramped up when word got out that Anami Paul is, wait for it, Jewish.
You know, I bet many people, Green Party members included, had no idea about Annamie Paul's faith.
After all, being female and black, Anami was well on her way toward a royal flush in the identity politics card game.
But her being Jewish and pro-Israel, ouch, that's a bit of a setback, isn't it?
Well, at least in the eyes of the Uber progressives who make up the Green Party rank and file.
In fact, Green Party Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin bolted from the Green Party for the Liberals last month, saying that Paul's statement regarding recent conflicts in the Middle East were, quote, totally inadequate, end quote.
I think Atwin wanted Miss Paul to, you know, channel the El Qud slogan of from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
In other words, wipe Israel off the face of the planet.
I'm certain that would be a more adequate statement in the eyes of Miss Atwin.
Yet, not only does there appear to be a heap and helping of anti-Semitism in the DNA of the Green Party, but there's also widespread speculation that former Green Party leader Elizabeth May has not, as the saying goes, left the building, that she is still a force behind the scenes, a la that man behind the curtain in the wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Now, full disclosure, I have zero evidence to prove that Miss May is an anti-Semite, but I do have evidence to support that she has a thing for radical Islam.
Do you recall her outrageous rant in 2015 regarding Canada's very own homegrown terrorist, Omar Cotter?
Oh, it's one for the ages, all right.
Do you guys ever wake up with old theme songs from former black and white TV shows that you never thought your kids would ever see and they're running through your head?
Like every now and then I wake up thinking about Lisa, you've got to wait.
Lisa, I wake up thinking about a horse is a horse, of course, of course.
This morning I wake up thinking this.
Why am I thinking this?
Do you guys wonder?
Hang on.
Wait, you know what?
Do you guys remember the same song?
Welcome back.
Who knew Cotter with Belt?
K-H-A-D-R.
Welcome back.
Omar Cotter.
It matters to say it.
Welcome back, Omar Cotter.
home there's a lot unusual about your speechless but we're gonna take off Omar Cotter, he's got more class than the whole cabinet.
Thank you.
Can you believe that?
In May's view, a murderer and an Islamist terrorist has more effing class than the entire Stephen Harper cabinet.
So if Liz is going to bat for an odious individual who surely fantasizes about Israel being wiped off the map, I think we might have a clear understanding of Liz's Mideast policy.
Oh, but Menzoid, I can hear you yelling.
Miss May was drunk as a skunk when she made those pro-Omar Cotter statements.
Perhaps, but two years ago, I asked her about those comments during a press conference after a federal leadership debate.
Check it out.
Ms. May, David Menzies with Rebel News.
Ms. May, in 2015, you stated that convicted terrorist Omar Cotter had more class than the entire effing Conservative cabinet under Stephen Harper.
Do you still believe in 2019 that this convicted terrorist has more class than the entire Conservative Party under Andrew Scheer?
Have you ever been to a press gallery dinner?
Do you understand the concept of it being ridiculous with lots of humor?
I'm sorry, that's not a real question.
Oh, sorry, if this was an attempt at humor, a supplemental question, do you think that the widow and the fatherless children of Christopher Speer, his murder victim, do you think they found that funny, Miss May?
Well, she looked pretty sober to me that night, and she doubled down on her pro-Omar comments.
What a nut.
Now, I would reach out to Miss May for clarification, but these days she's giving me the silent treatment.
Last time I saw May, she was in Vancouver in October of 2019.
Check out the interaction.
Oh, Miss May, how you doing?
David Menzies.
I got to ask you, what happened on Monday?
If climate change is such a big issue, why is your party only three seats?
Have I got you a bad time?
You're not on route to your Dodge Viper, are you?
You want to change sights?
Walk.
Now, to be fair, May had her noise out of joint that day.
You see, Greta Tunberg was in town to address a few thousand cultists about global warming or climate change or extinction or something.
So you can imagine how green with envy Liz was given that this teenage weirdo from Sweden was stealing all of Liz's green thunder.
How dare you?
In any event, just imagine you are Anna May Paul trying to make a credible run at picking up seats for the Green Party, and you have to contend with crazy Liz doing backroom deals and Green Party members who are seemingly more concerned with the plight of Hamas than they are with the environment.
Oh, unless we forget, and I had indeed forgotten, there's former Green Party candidate Monica Schaefer.
Marvelous Monica ran for the Green Party in Alberta's Yellowhead riding in 2006, 8, and 11.
She's skilled with the violin, we understand, but what a bummer.
It was later discovered that Monica is a Holocaust denier.
Can you believe it?
A Holocaust denier somehow being attracted to the Green Party?
Well, knock me over with a feather.
By the way, Anami Paul has found out that she has few friends outside the Green Party too.
For example, the other day the Justin Trudeau Liberals held a national anti-Semitism summit.
First, Anami was not allowed to attend.
The optics were pretty putrid regarding that snub.
So the liberals reverse course, well, sort of.
Check out Anami's tweet on the ground rules of her being permitted to attend the summit.
Quote, the government just sent a link for today's anti-Semitism summit.
I can observe, but I can't speak.
Reason?
To ensure the summit remains a space where community members can express their opinions and ideas.
I am Jewish.
This is my community.
Then again, why would Justin Trudeau want a bona fide black female to attend such a summit?
After all, doesn't he already have both of those bases covered off?
Justin identifies as a feminist, even though there are plenty of females out there who would take issue with that descriptor.
As for skin tone, Justin merely has to tiptoe over to the tickle trunk and get reunited with that jar of blackface makeup.
So in a sense, there was kind of sorta already a black female attending that summit, wasn't there?
But now this just in looks like the mutiny against Annemie Paul is back on big time.
The Green Party is taking her to court.
The party wants to overturn the arbitration that canceled the confidence vote and membership review.
It sounds so surreal, so incredible that on the eve of an election, a party leader's biggest battle would appear to be with members of her own party rather than with other political parties.
We just had to see this lawsuit for ourselves.
So yesterday, our lawyers sent a process server to acquire a copy of these documents, which were filed Wednesday in Toronto in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
And these documents are nothing short of fascinating, given that they clearly show Ms. Paul, the leader of the Green Party of Canada, is not only being sued by the Green Party of Canada, but also the party's fundraising arm, the Green Party Fund of Canada.
These documents clearly indicate that the Green Party and the Green Party Fund are jointly seeking to overturn an impartial arbiter's decision, arguing he exceeded his authority in requiring party executives to cancel their non-confidence vote against Paul, as well as a review of her party membership.
What's more, the documents state that Paul's employment contract was with the Green Fund, a separate legal entity that controls the party finances as opposed to the Green Party.
Therefore, the suit argues that the arbitrator erred in law because he had no authority to impose a contract on the party itself.
Bottom line, the documents clearly indicate that the Green Party is at war with itself.
It's kind of like what would have been the case in Ontario during the 2018 election campaign if Patrick Brown was allowed to remain on as leader of the PC party.
The only difference being that Brown deserved to be ousted, given his actions prove that he was really a closet liberal.
Whereas in my opinion, Anami Paul does not deserve to be removed given that her only sin is that she is simply too pro-Israel.
Vaccinated Gym Frustrations00:14:02
She is, you know, just a little too Jewy.
If she really wanted to curry favor with her party, she would reimagine herself as an Israel-hating atheist promoting the BDS movement.
Oh, the progressives just love those kind of cats.
But turmoil aside, my open question to Miss Paul is simply this.
Why would you even want to lead this pathetic band of anti-Semitic scoundrels in the first place?
Why do you want to be the leader of a party that still seems to be beholden to crazy Elizabeth May?
And where is Miss May in all of this drama?
Well, yesterday was the official launch of Anime's campaign in Toronto, and she put on a brave face given all the theatrics and distractions.
In a CTV report, Elizabeth May had this to say, quote, our leader is Anami Paul, and only our members have authority to call that into question, end quote.
Wow, what an endorsement, eh?
Oh, well, let's look on the bright side.
At least Crazy Liz didn't put forth the idea that Omer Cotter should be the new leader of the Green Party.
And don't think that's so outrageous.
I think at this stage, Cotter would actually have more support than Paul in terms of what the Green Party rank and file have to say.
I mean, at least little Omar is on the right side of progressive policy, at least regarding Israel.
As for Miss Paul, I would move on from this grotesque dumpster fire in a heartbeat.
The Green Party simply doesn't deserve Ms. Paul rather than the other way around.
Or put another way, to paraphrase Elizabeth May herself, circa 2015, Anname Paul, you have more effing class than the entire Green Party combined.
Well, as an increasing number of businesses are requiring staff and clients to get double vaccinated, the fearless boxing club in Toronto makes for a horse of a different colour, which is to say...
if you have been vaccinated for COVID-19, you are persona non grata at this fitness facility.
That's right.
If you've been double vaxed, you'll have to go elsewhere if you plan on floating like a butterfly and or stinging like a bee.
And I'm joined now by Andrew Lawton of True North, who recently penned a story about a business that would seem to be unique when it comes to its vaccination policy.
Welcome to the Ezra Levant Show, Andrew.
Hey, it's good to be with you, David.
It's always a pleasure, my friend.
So, Andrew, the first question is obvious.
Why does the gym's co-founder, Mohamed Abedin, want vaccinated people to steer clear of his gym?
Well, the reason he gives, I must admit, I don't find the most convincing.
He says here, and I'm just going to read it, for the safety of our members, the Fearless Boxing Club will no longer be accepting those who received the experimental COVID vaccine.
Our current members include doctors, nurses, teachers, parents, and many youth who feel safer waiting until more research is done on the side effects being discovered right now.
So I don't think the concern is coming from the health effects of working out in the vicinity of the vaccinated.
It may well be.
I'm not seeing any evidence that you having the vaccine can give someone else secondhand vaccination.
But it does seem like it's thumbing the nose at all of these people, a lot of gyms in particular, who have been saying for the last couple of weeks that they have a right to make sure that only the vaccinated work out.
He's saying, all right, well, two can play this game.
Yeah, I think you're right about that, Andrew.
And you know, I mean, on one hand, I love the cheekiness of this policy.
I mean, it's really flying in the face of the demographic I like to call the COVID Karens that want you double vaxed, triple masked, socially distancing till the end of time.
Yet, by the same token, I don't see what the health risk would be in going to a gym where there are vaccinated people.
And the other thing, Andrew, when it comes to vaccination right across the board, I'm not pro-vax, I'm not anti-vax.
I'm all about vax choice.
If you want to get the jabs, get the jabs.
If you don't, don't.
Do you think maybe this is a stunt to generate publicity?
Because he's sure getting it.
Yeah, he is.
I mean, I had never heard of the gym before.
Now I have.
So, in that sense, mission accomplished.
Although there is a bit of a protest history with this gym in particular, because it was born during the pandemic.
So this gym opened for the first time when every other gym in Ontario was ordered to be closed.
So I do think there is a contrarian streak that's running throughout it.
And I also think that people have a right to make their own decisions about whether to get vaccinated or not.
And the whole point here that I've been making throughout the pandemic is that people need to be able to assess their own risk level, their own tolerance to that risk level, and make a decision that's right for them.
And the problem with all of the people pushing for vaccine passports and vaccine mandates now is that they're trying to eliminate that individual responsibility component.
So I do think when we're talking about this, I don't like the race to the bottom of it.
I don't like this idea of a paralleled society where we have the gym for only the vaccinated people, the gym for the unvaccinated people.
And if you're partially vaccinated, I guess you just have to work out in the street or something.
I don't think we're getting any better off as a society when we do that.
But if it is a stunt, if it is just about kind of that, as you said, cheekiness, then I think it was a very well-placed one.
You know, and maybe it was motivated by, well, you know, you refer in your story, Andrew, to I think it's Canada's biggest fitness chain, Good Life Fitness, based right in your city of London, Ontario.
And they've got an optional vaccination policy, which I think is good.
But, you know, several days ago, Gerald Butts, aka Justin Trudeau's puppet master, weighed in on social media saying, Good Life, you're going to regret this.
And I thought, well, how outrageous and how inappropriate for the Prime Minister's right-hand man to condemn a business for basically following the law.
And maybe this is what motivated this kind of, you know, anti-vax policy in terms of those who have gotten the vaccination at Fearless.
But what were your thoughts on that in terms of the political class along the lines of Gerald Butts condemning a company like Good Life for simply following the law?
Well, I actually want to make a slight correction to how you characterize Good Life's policy because you'd said, I think that Good Life has an optional vaccine policy.
In reality, Good Life has no policy whatsoever on voxy.
So if you want to go to the gym, doesn't matter if you are vaccinated or not.
They have no policy whatsoever.
And how this controversy, if you can even call it that, came about is someone asked the company on Twitter, hey, do you need to be vaccinated to work out there?
And they said, no, we have no policy that requires vaccination.
And this became this tweet that subjected them to the cancel mob of people like Bruce Arthur at the Toronto Star, people like Gerald Butts accusing them of being anti-vax, accusing them of being reckless with their members' health, people threatening to cancel.
And you're right, they just were following the law, which is to say that we are not as a business going to start checking vaccine papers when you show up to do a few lines, not a few lines.
I don't know if they do that a good life.
I was going to say a few laps in the pool or do a few kilometers on the treadmill or something like that.
And now we are in this era where the absence of a requirement is seen as being a protest against the direction that a lot of these people are pushing for, which is a very dangerous direction, to say, mandating a vaccine for accessing many aspects of civil society.
You know, and I think you're right, Andrew, and the protests work both ways.
I mean, you spoke about in your story, a Toronto lawyer, he had set up a website to promote businesses that required vaccinations, and then the project was scuttled within weeks.
Less than a week later, it didn't even last a week before people started to realize: hey, they actually don't like businesses telling them what they have to do or not do as far as medical treatment is concerned.
Yeah, and you know, this is going to be an interesting thing that plays out, I think, Andrew, in the weeks and months ahead, because I spoke to the owner of the Moonshine Cafe in Oakville, Ontario, last week.
He was getting publicity.
One of the headlines, kind of creative, no jabs, no tabs.
Basically, if you don't have your double vaccination, you cannot get a seat at his restaurant.
When I spoke to him, he said all his regulars were all thumbs up.
They thought it was a great idea.
But wow, the deluge on social media.
And then there was going to be a demonstration outside his restaurant a week ago on Saturday.
And then he promptly changed the policy to it's vaccination optional.
So I think, you know, depending on who your clientele is, it might not be financially beneficial to demand anything.
Well, I mean, why would you wade into it?
And one of the big frustrations I had when that website in Toronto came up, there was a business in Toronto, a restaurant called Chanticler, which was one of the first to say, yes, we want to require vaccinations if you want a seat inside.
You can sit out on the street if you want to eat your food, but if you want a seat inside, you've got to be fully vaccinated.
And the owner of that restaurant was interviewed by CBC, and he was quite mad that the government didn't require vaccines, so he had to.
That was his belief.
And I was thinking, well, wait, you're angry that you have a choice as a business owner.
You're angry that you, as an individual citizen, have autonomy to make a decision for yourself.
They want the government to make the decision for them so they don't have to deal with the consequences of consumers or possible consumers who don't like these policies.
You know, isn't that fascinating?
Because I see the people who lust for a mandatory vaccination program, Andrew, being on the left side of the political spectrum.
And you know that for decades, when it came to the abortion debate, what was the phrase, my Body, my choice.
Well, what happened to choices when it comes to an injection of an experimental vaccine going into your body?
Suddenly, that is not a current thing to popularize.
No, and let me say here, I am not at all anti-vaccination, but the whole point is people, I believe, have a right to make the choice.
And if an individual wants to get vaccinated, feels safer when they're vaccinated, absolutely, they should not be condemned or chastised for doing that.
And the problem that I have is that now you have all of these people who for years have been saying about any number of issues, this is my choice, telling people, no, no, no, you have to get vaccinated, or effectively saying you have to, because we're going to say you can't do all of these other things like go to a concert or go to a restaurant if you don't.
And the reality is, when they start to call for government to make those determinations, we move into a very dark territory, which is why we're seeing so much backlash, by the way, in Europe, places like France, Italy, even Greece to some extent of people who are by and large happy to get vaccinated.
But once the government requires it, they say, well, this is not what a free country is about.
No, you're 100% right.
And also, Andrew, where do we draw the line when it comes to this potential slippery slope?
Which is to say, if I was running a gym, if I was the greeter at a restaurant, I ask, have you been double vaccinated?
Okay.
By the way, what is your history in terms of sexually transmitted diseases, sir?
Can you please let me know about that?
I thought our medical histories are things that are private.
Yeah, I was trying to come back into Canada a few months back from the United States, and I had to get a PCR test.
And some of these American clinics, to get the simplest thing done, will ask you a million and a half questions.
They go through the entire medical history of, oh, you know, did you have a great, great, great, great-grandparent who had, you know, dysentery on his way to the Oregon Trail or something like that?
And at a certain point, you will have to wonder if going into a restaurant will become an actuarial calculation where to get in there, you know, talking about, okay, yeah, you've got the COVID vaccine.
How about measles, mumps, rubella?
You up to date on that?
Have you gotten your Gardasil vaccine?
No.
Oh, well, okay, you're sitting at the back, sir.
And there's an absurdity to this, but at the same time, not that much because we have been told by all of the so-called experts that this is going to be something that we just have to live with.
Pfizer's talking about annual booster shots.
We know that all of the discussion once COVID ends will switch to future pandemics.
So the infrastructure that's set up now is very important because it's going to outlast this particular virus.
Actuarial Calculations00:01:02
Yeah, no, I think you're right, Andrew.
And I mean, in closing, because we're just running out of racetrack here, Andrew, I think maybe the ultimate beneficiaries of these vaccination policies will be, oh, I don't know, the food delivery services and the home gym equipment manufacturers.
I think I'm going to become a hermit, Andrew.
I think I'm never going to be a person.
I mean, I already was one, so the pandemic was less tough on me than on some other people.
But no, I mean, with all of these things, you're right.
The big winners are Uber Eats and Amazon Prime.
That's right.
Well, Andrew, it was a great piece, and thank you so much for joining me, my friend.
Anytime, David.
There you go.
And that was Andrew Lawton from London, Ontario.
Keep it here.
more of the Ezra Levent show to come right after this.
Hey folks, thanks so much for watching The Big Boss Man Ezra Levent.