Vaughn Palmer: Ousted cabinet minister’s book, Truth Be Told, is a persuasive indictment of Premier Eby’s limitations as a leader
VICTORIA — As ousted NDP cabinet minister Selina Robinson tells it, Premier David Eby was initially supportive of her attempt to apologize for a wrong-headed comment she made after the brutal attack on Israel by Hamas.
Robinson referred to Israel as having been established on “a crappy piece of land with nothing on it.” The comment, during an online forum on Jan. 30, drew accusations of racism and support for genocide.
Robinson began working on a public apology and by email, she let the premier know: “Sorry. I got lazy. … Should have been more precise in my words. Apology crafted. Should be out soon.”
Ten minutes later he responded: “Happens to the best. Hang in there.”
Eby’s support didn’t last. She soon found herself pressured to resign, then forced out by the premier for offending powerful constituencies inside and outside of the NDP.
Robinson’s account was published this week as Truth Be Told, a memoir whose profits “will go to advance coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians and to fight antisemitism in Canada.”
The book covers a lot of ground regarding the NDP and antisemitism. The inspiration is a sobering account of what it was like to run afoul of a craven premier and a caucus who were unwilling to stand up to extremist calls for her head.
Eby’s support for Robinson began unravelling within a day of the e-mail exchange, quoted above.
Despite her abject apology, a dozen Imams, mosques and Islamic centres told the premier that unless she was fired, NDP MLAs and candidates would not be permitted in their facilities.
“This was no small threat,” writes Robinson. “Candidates depend on these connections, especially in many culturally diverse areas, like Surrey, where close elections can be won or lost.”
She then asks a question that underscores a double standard in the NDP.
“What would the Premier’s response have been had the issue been, say, reproductive freedom or LGBTQ+ rights and the clergy were Catholic bishops?”
The backlash also forced the NDP to cancel a fundraiser in Surrey, a key battleground in this year’s provincial election.
The premier then summoned Robinson to a meeting of the caucus of NDP MLAs and cabinet ministers on Monday Feb. 5.
He directed her to attend long enough to deliver an apology for the damage she’d done, then leave to allow the caucus “to have a conversation about my actions without me in the room.”
It was a sign that Eby no longer had her back.
“I would never know what happened or what was said,” writes Robinson. “It was a show trial in which the outcome was never in doubt.”
She recited at caucus an apology crafted in the premier’s office, then went home to await a call from the premier, which came shortly after noon.
“He told me that he could not see a way forward. I asked him what that meant. He repeated the phrase. I told the premier that if he wanted my resignation, I would give it to him, but he needed to ask for it.”
Apparently Eby couldn’t bring himself to say “you’re fired.”
Instead, Robinson was handed off to the premier’s office to work on a statement announcing her exit.
In the midst of that work, the soon-to-be-ex minister got a call from Lisa Beare, then as now a member of Eby’s cabinet. Robinson had regarded her as friend, but was soon disabused of that notion.
“Lisa called to say that I really should resign. She explained that there were no other options, and it would be best for everyone if I did the right thing.
“The right thing?” fumes Robinson. “I was the one besieged by a mob and they wanted me to do the right thing. Amid the worst moments of my life, Lisa’s phone call stands out as one of the most painful memories.”
The premier’s office and Robinson finally compromised a news release that framed her departure as a “joint decision.”
Those weasel words notwithstanding, Eby’s subsequent statement left no doubt that he’d forced her out: “The depth of the work that Minister Robinson needs to do to address the harms that she’s caused is significant and it is incompatible with her continuing as a minister.”
Robinson, who was still an NDP MLA, offered to reach out to the Muslim and Jewish communities along the lines that the premier suggested.
But Eby’s chief of staff, Matt Smith, squelched the project as “too political.”
Robinson had one last meeting with Eby, hoping against hope that he’d changed his mind about her proposed outreach. Instead, he sought her help in derailing a plan by her constituency executive to write a letter of protest over her rough treatment.
With that last, discouraging signal from the boss, Robinson resigned from the NDP caucus to sit as an independent.
“I did not leave my premier and my party, they left me.”
During her seven years in government, Robinson served two premiers: John Horgan and David Eby.
Her book is a persuasive indictment of Eby’s limitations as a leader. The contents are dedicated to Horgan.