Green Party Leadership Candidate Faces Expulsion From Race, Will Fight Ruling
One of the Green Party leadership race’s most outspoken leftist candidates is facing expulsion from the race mere days before voting was set to begin — and is now appealing the ruling in hopes of getting back on the ballot.
Meryam Haddad, a 25-year-old lawyer from Montreal, was expelled from the race Tuesday for “intentionally undertaking an action that would bring the Green Party of Canada into disrepute.”
In a statement shared to Twitter Tuesday night, Haddad said this is not the first time she’s bumped up against the party establishment.
“Let me be clear, this is an attack on democracy, youth, progress and ideas that threaten the status quo,” Haddad wrote. “Help us make it loud and clear that we would not be silenced.”
WATCH: Elizabeth May resigns as Green Party leader. Story continues below.
Haddad is one of eight candidates currently vying for long-time leader Elizabeth May’s post and a chance to shape the party going forward. Several candidates, including Haddad, have called for an overhaul of the Greens to become an explicitly eco-socialist party and move left of even the NDP. The leadership race has spurred an increase of more than 50 per cent in Green Party memberships since last year’s federal election.
Online ranked-ballot voting to find a new leader is set to open this weekend with the winner announced on Oct. 3.
Haddad announced the party’s decision to remove her from the race Tuesday night, shortly following the start of a scheduled leadership debate on food security.
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In a statement to HuffPost Canada Wednesday, the Green Party of Canada gave no comment on why Haddad was expelled, simply noting she...
