Green Party

(Ottawa) A week after suffering a crushing defeat, in her riding and across the country, Green Party leader Annamie Paul is throwing in the towel. She will make the announcement on Monday, La Presse learned.

OTTAWA — The vast majority of those vying for spots on the Green party’s most powerful governing body either oppose Annamie Paul’s leadership or won’t say whether they support her.

The lack of public backing from candidates for the Greens’ federal council raises questions about whether challenges to Paul’s leadership will continue, despite her claims she is facing a “one-sided campaign” from a small group of outgoing officials.

Paul said last week that threats to her leadership are “time-limited” and will fade away with federal council members who are being replaced in party elections that are underway.

OTTAWA—The Green party’s interim president is blaming embattled leader Annamie Paul for the need to launch a court challenge as top officials continue their effort to depose her before they are replaced in party elections next month.

Liana Canton Cusmano — the president of the party’s federal council and one of the officials trying to oust Paul — sent an email to Green members shortly after midnight Friday morning.

In that email, which was obtained by the Star, Cusmano addresses the legal challenge that the party filed in Ontario Superior Court this week. The party wants the court to overrule private arbitration decisions that blocked a planned confidence vote in Paul’s leadership and suspended a review of her party membership.

OTTAWA — This fight isn’t over.

Two days after Annamie Paul applauded the abrupt halt of threats to her leadership from top officials in her own party, the Green Party of Canada filed an application in Ontario Superior Court on Wednesday that seeks to revive them.

The application reveals that Paul won a reprieve from attempts to depose her through a legal arbitration process relating to her employment contract with the Green party.

The party is now trying to get that decision overturned in court.

… On Tuesday, the long-running battle will culminate in a forced vote to test confidence in Paul’s leadership among the party’s board. The vote is the second Paul has faced since New Brunswick Green MP Jenica Atwin crossed the floor to the Liberals in June after clashing over Paul’s support for Israel.

Paul’s supporters consider the vote nothing less than an attempted coup — a bid to remove Paul before the general election, regardless of the consequences for the party at the ballot box.

OTTAWA—Can Annamie Paul be the leader of the Green Party of Canada if she isn’t a party member?

In the wake of the revelation, first reported by the Star, that the status of Paul’s membership was discussed this week at a closed-door meeting of top Green officials, party insiders are left asking that very question.

“Honestly, I’m trying to wrap my brain around this now … It’s not clear to me,” said Carole Chan, a Green member who is running for party president in the ongoing elections to replace most members of the Green’s top governing body, the federal council.

Already facing a challenge to her leadership, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul also now faces the prospect of losing her party membership.

Several sources told CBC News that the party’s federal council discussed reviewing Annamie Paul’s membership during a meeting late Tuesday night. The sources said they could not confirm whether a formal review has been initiated, as the Toronto Star first reported.

It’s not clear what revoking Paul’s membership would mean for the status of her leadership. According to the party’s rules, the leader must be a member in good standing.

OTTAWA – Green party executives have moved to withhold funding from leader Annamie Paul’s campaign to win a downtown Toronto seat in a likely election later this year.

Four party sources, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal matters, say a motion was tabled at a federal council meeting on June 29 to hold back $250,000 previously earmarked for Paul’s campaign in Toronto Centre.

OTTAWA—With the prospect of a federal election looming, the Green party’s interim executive director convened a virtual staff meeting last Wednesday to announce that nearly half of the party’s employees would soon be out of a job.

But when Green Leader Annamie Paul denounced the cuts, going back and forth with interim executive director Dana Taylor on a Zoom call, the embattled leader was told she was going to be put on mute.

Well isn’t that Progressive!