Annamie Paul
Annamie Paul (born November 3, 1972) is a Canadian activist, lawyer, and former politician who served as the leader of the Green Party of Canada from 2020 to 2021. She was the first Black Canadian and first Jewish woman to be elected leader of a federal party in Canada. Paul was the founder and executive director of the Canadian Centre for Political Leadership from 2001 to 2005 and has worked in civic engagement and international affairs positions, including in political affairs in Canada's Mission to the European Union and in the Office of the Prosecutor at the  International Criminal Court. She is co-founder of the Barcelona International Public Policy Hub (BIPP HUB). She was defeated as a candidate for Toronto Centre in the 2019 Canadian federal election. Paul won the 2020 Green Party of Canada leadership election to replace Elizabeth May. Paul ran in the 2020 Toronto Centre federal by-election on October 26, 2020, which was called following the resignation of Bill Morneau. She was defeated by Liberal nominee Marci Ien, making her the only federal party leader who is not an MP, but whose party has representation in the House of Commons. Paul decided  to run in Toronto Centre again, but again lost that election to Ien. In June 2021, controversy emerged over Paul's leadership after the floor crossing of Green MP Jenica Atwin. In the 2021 Canadian federal election, the Greens under Paul maintained two seats but Paul was defeated for the third time in her riding of Toronto Centre where she placed fourth. A week after the election on September 27, 2021, she began the process of resignation as party leader. On November 10, 2021, she officially tendered her resignation. On November 14, 2021, the party's federal council officially accepted  her resignation and confirmed she was no longer leader. Background. Paul started her involvement with politics early, working as a page in the Ontario Legislature at age 12, and later as a page at the Canadian Senate, and as a non-partisan Ontario Legislature intern with the Ontario Legislature Internship Programme (OLIP), she was placed in a Progressive Conservative and later Liberal office in 1996. She attended high school at Toronto's Runnymede Collegiate Institute and holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Ottawa and a Master of Public Affairs degree from Princeton University. She was called  to the bar in Ontario in 1998. Paul is the older sister of Canadian actress Ngozi Paul, twin sister to Luther, and is married to international human rights lawyer Mark Freeman. They have two sons. Her mother is from Nevis and her father from Dominica. Her father died in a long term care home from a bladder infection on May 29, 2020. Paul converted to Judaism, the faith of her husband, in 2000. She speaks English, French, Catalan and Spanish. Civic engagement. In 2001, Paul started the Canadian Centre for Political Leadership (CCPL), whose work was supported by a fellowship  from the Echoing Green Foundation and support from the Maytree Foundation. The CCPL was an organization focused on helping women, Indigenous persons, and people of colour to pursue public offices. Through the CCPL, Paul ran training sessions across Canada, as well as conferences devoted to participation in elected roles and board appointments. Participants in the CCPL's programs went on to achieve those objectives, being appointed and elected to boards and political staff positions. In 2017, Paul co-founded the Barcelona International Public Policy Hub (BIPP HUB), a social enterprise co-work space designed to be a catalyst for international  NGOs working on global challenges. Aside from providing support, the hub also hosts individual projects including democraciaAbierta, the Spanish language branch of OpenDemocracy, Verificat, a Catalan language news fact-checking service, and the Climate Infrastructure Project. In 2019, Paul co-created the 1834 Fellowship to train young Black Canadian policy leaders, a project of Operation Black Vote Canada. Early political career (1996–2020). Paul interned for Liberal MPP Dominic Agostino in 1996, who served as Gerard Kennedy's leadership campaign co-chair. She stated she interned for him to see what a leadership campaign looked like. Paul moved back to Canada  from Barcelona in 2019 and won the Green nomination for Toronto Centre in July 2019. She stood in the 2019 federal election as the Green Party candidate in Toronto Centre, where she lost to then-Finance Minister Bill Morneau. Soon after her nomination, she was appointed to the Green Party's Shadow Cabinet as International Affairs Critic by Elizabeth May, a position she held until February 2020, when she stepped down to enter the leadership race. In March 2020, she was the first candidate registered to run in the race to be the 9th leader of the Green Party of  Canada. She called the leadership race, the first one since 2006, an "opportunity for renewal" for the party. Elizabeth May offered to step aside to allow Paul to run in Saanich—Gulf Islands. On September 24, 2020, Paul announced that she had received permission from the Green Party to apply to be a candidate in the October 2020 federal by-election in Toronto Centre. Leadership of the Green Party of Canada (2020–2021). On October 3, 2020, Paul was elected leader of the Green Party of Canada, becoming the first Black Canadian and first Jewish woman to be elected leader of  a major political party in Canada. She won 54.53 per cent of votes on the final round of voting, defeating runner-up Dimitri Lascaris and six other candidates. Paul has been described as a centrist. On October 26, Paul placed second in the Toronto Centre by-election, increasing her proportion of the vote by just over 25 per cent from the 2019 race. In January 2021, it was reported that Paul had decided to run in an Ontario riding during the next federal election, and was considering Guelph or a Toronto electoral district. About two weeks later, it was confirmed  that Paul intended to run again in Toronto Centre. Noah Zatzman statement and subsequent MP floor crossing. Controversy erupted soon after a statement was published on the Party website on May 10, 2021 to call for de-escalation of violence in the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis and a return to dialogue; it quoted Paul as urging restraint and calling on those in authority to try to prevent further injury or loss of life. Green MP Jenica Atwin responded with a statement describing Paul's quotation as "totally inadequate"; Atwin mentioned the official Party policy on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict of  expecting MPs to oppose illegal settlements and the siege of Gaza. Paul's senior advisor Noah Zatzman called out several MPs including Atwin in a May 14 Facebook post, calling their statements regarding the crisis "appalling" and antisemitic, and saying, While Party insiders called on Paul to denounce Zatzman's attack, and called on the Party to remove Zatzman from his position, Paul instead described the situation as a "difference of opinion", and also called for "solidarity to condemn anti-Semitism". Other prominent members of the Party, including former leadership candidate Dimitri Lascaris, indicated that criticism of the statement quoting  Paul was expressed by Atwin and others because it did not reflect the Party policy, which was adopted in 2016 with over 90% support, and expressed astonishment that Paul did not jump to defend MPs or repudiate Noah Zatzman's remarks, when she herself stated that she does not believe that the MPs are antisemitic. Atwin subsequently crossed the floor and joined the Liberal Party on June 10, citing lack of support from Paul's leadership after Zatzman's threat to defeat her. Paul disagreed with this account and claimed the events had nothing to do with Zatzman or her ; however, the remaining Green MPs, Elizabeth May and Paul Manly, issued a statement stating "Unfortunately, the attack against Ms. Atwin by the Green Party leader's chief spokesperson on May 14th created the conditions that led to this crisis." On June 4, the Green Party executive voted not to renew Zatzman's contract, while the Green Party of Quebec released a statement saying it would be "difficult ... to fully collaborate with Ms. Paul and her staff" after Zatzman's comments. David Suzuki stated that he believes that a strength of the Green Party was that MPs were allowed to express  a "diversity of opinion," but Annamie Paul "has totally destroyed that one thing." Federal council response. On June 15, the Green Party launched the process that could remove Paul from leadership on July 15. The federal council passed a motion requiring Paul to denounce Zatzman and support the federal caucus, under threat of a vote of non-confidence on July 20. Paul claimed later in June that the federal council had decided to call off the vote, but in a Party town hall on June 30, interim president Liana Cusmano confirmed that this is not the case. In July 2021 , the Party's interim executive director kicked off a process to review Paul's membership, a process that is automatically triggered under the Party's code of conduct when a member triggers a legal action against the Party. On July 19, Paul announced in a press conference that the non-confidence vote and membership review would not take place under the currently elected council; the council body is poised to turn over to a newly elected council on August 20. On July 21, the Party and the Green Party of Canada Fund filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court  arguing that an arbitrator exceeded authority in setting aside a non-confidence vote and membership review because Paul's contract was not with the Party's federal council, but with the Green Party of Canada Fund. The Party president also disputed a claim by Paul that she cannot speak publicly about why the non-confidence vote and membership review were put on hold. Accusations of racism, sexism, and antisemitism. Paul slammed a letter that was written by several councilors and presented at the June 15 council meeting that initially discussed the non-confidence vote, and stated that the letter  included a "list of allegations: allegations that were so racist, so sexist that they were immediately disavowed by both of our MPs as offensive and inflammatory and contrary to party ethics, and I thank our MPs for that". Paul further characterized Justin Trudeau as not being a feminist for what Paul alleges is an undermining of her leadership. Paul also accused Chrystia Freeland of being a "female shield" to the Prime Minister, to which Freeland responded: "I am not a token, nor would I ever accuse another woman politician of being some man's token – that is not how a  feminist treats another woman." Former leadership candidate Dimitri Lascaris criticized the party for having the lowest proportion of racialized candidates in previous elections and for issues with institutional racism existing within the Party; Lascaris further stated that there is also a legitimate critique of Paul's leadership, and that identifying the genuine racism that exists in the Party and distinguishing it from genuine criticism is "a very difficult and painful exercise". Former leadership candidate and astrophysicist Amita Kuttner stated that they have experienced first-hand racism, misogyny, transphobia and homophobia within the Party, and that it's a real challenge  for the Party, and also stated that there is legitimate criticism of Paul's leadership and handling of the matter that resulted in Atwin's caucus exit. On July 20, Paul accused the federal government of antisemitism for not inviting her to an antisemitism summit. The federal government has stated that federal opposition leaders including Paul were invited, but as observers, "to ensure the summit remain a safe space where community members can express their opinions and ideas". Candidate nomination issues. In June 2021, Judy N. Green, co-president of the Green Party of Nova Scotia and 2020 Green Party  leadership candidate, stated that a decision was made by Paul and her Chief of Staff to block Party members in the West Nova federal riding from considering Green for nomination in the upcoming federal election; Green was previously nominated as the West Nova candidate in 2019. On June 19, Lisa Gunderson withdrew from the party nomination contest for the Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke federal riding, stating that "recent events are not consistent with Green values." Party financial issues. On July 13, Green Party executives moved to block funding for Paul's Toronto Centre riding campaign, a move that was preceded by  layoffs of about half of the Party's staff; a report indicated that Party spending exceeded revenues. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are expected to be expended by the Party on legal battles with Paul. Resignation and departure from the Green Party. Paul announced her pending resignation as Green party leader on September 27, 2021. As Paul's resignation had not taken effect due to prolonged negotiations on a settlement of outstanding financial issues, an automatic leadership vote of all party members commenced in October and was to conclude on November 25, 2021. On November 10, 2021, as voting in  the review was ongoing, Paul officially submitted her resignation and also ended her membership within the party.<ref name="CBC11/10"></ref> Her resignation as leader took effect on November 14, 2021, when it was officially accepted by the party's federal council. In late November 2021, the party released a report indicating that it was threatened with insolvency, and was considering closing its office in Ottawa. The party had lost 499 monthly donors since July 2021, and 6,259 members in the same time. The report blamed negotiations concerning Paul's departure as leader of the party for significant legal costs. Awards and  fellowships. Paul is an Action Canada Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow, member of the University of Ottawa Common Law Honour Society, alumna of the Government of Canada Recruitment of Policy Leaders Program, and a recipient of the Harry Jerome Award.