Liberal candidate makes sexist, antisemitic comment towards Green leader Annamie Paul

A Trudeau Liberal candidate made an incendiary "Jew" insult on Twitter towards Green leader Annamie Paul. She said it constituted online hate speech.

"It happens all too often," she said. "A lot of that is directed at me."

Irene Walker, the Liberal candidate in Sturgeon River-Parkland, Alberta, tweeted the remark on June 18, more than two months before the Party acclaimed her in the riding, reported Blacklock's.

Asked by a Twitter follower: "I really don’t know enough about the Green Party and Annamie drama to have an opinion, but what are your thoughts on it?" Walker replied: "Personally I think she has done a great disservice to women, people who are not white and Jews."

The Trudeau Liberals said Walker, a retired nurse, had apologized. Leader Paul said she did not receive any apology.

"It’s incredibly painful," said Paul. "It’s incredibly damaging."

"I have been constantly attacked... for my Jewish identity but also as a woman and also a person of colour."

"I hope everyone will call out hate when they see it because the silence clearly emboldens hate," she added. "I hope we will try to work towards a society where people from diverse backgrounds can feel welcome and included in politics, because it is still way too hard."

"It still asks too much of people seeking to serve."

"I’m alarmed to know someone who was vetted by the Liberal Party was able to tweet something like this and was still approved as a candidate," said Paul.

"They were vetted and approved even after having said those incredibly hateful and hurtful things in a public forum," she said. Paul earlier told the Times Of Israel she converted to Judaism, her husband’s faith, more than twenty years ago and educated both her sons at Jewish day schools.

Conservatives last won the Sturgeon River-Parkland riding with 78 percent of the vote. Liberal candidate Walker was one of 22 names acclaimed by the Party in August in the province. Federal Liberals have not won a majority of seats in Alberta since 1911.

August also saw thirteen Liberal candidates acclaimed by Party headquarters in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Liberals last won a majority of seats in Saskatchewan in 1949 and in Manitoba in 1993.

The Party’s popular vote in Prairie ridings in the 2019 campaign peaked at 29 percent in Winnipeg compared to 16 percent in Edmonton and Calgary, 14 percent in Regina and 11 percent in Saskatoon.

Party turnout in rural constituencies was so low several country polls did not see a single Liberal vote cast, including local Party scrutineers. In the hamlet of Giltedge, Alberta the Conservatives’ popular vote was 99.6 percent.