Angry in the Great White North

Thomas Hubert's comments regarding the shift of many former Liberal supporters in the Jewish community to the Conservatives were shocking:

The Liberal Party is stronger without these violent Zionists in our party. I am glad for them to cease influencing our foreign policy so we are free to promote Canadian values of peace. It amazes me that this community is so absurdly selfish. The only issue that matters to them is the defence of a "state" that survives on the blood of innocent people. Shameful.

The allusion to the blood libel is what takes this particular piece of Israel-bashing to a new level.

In the opinion of many people, what Hubert said is also revealing. That's not a partison Conservative supporter talking. Consider Warren Kinsella's reaction:

And people still ask me why I don't feel comfortable in the Liberal Party of Canada anymore. It's rather self-evident, I'd say.

Drawing back the curtain on the dark underbelly of the Liberal Party is the unforgivable sin. Scott Brison delivered the coup de grace:

The Honourable Scott Brison, M.P. (Kings-Hants) is calling on Thomas Hubert to step down from his position on the British Columbia Young Liberal executive after Mr. Hubert made offensive and anti-Semitic comments on a web log. "These remarks are totally unacceptable. The Liberal Party is a party of tolerance, multiculturalism and understanding. Mr. Hubert's remarks are not fitting for an executive member of our Party," said Mr. Brison.

Thomas Hubert, to his credit, realized he was in an untenable situation, and resigned:

To Whom It May Concern:

I would like to offer my extreme apologizes to any offended for recent comments I made. Furthermore, I would like to announce my resignation as VP of Communications.

Regards,
TH
Sent from my wireless Blackberry

Thomas Hubert's blog is gone:

The longwalk.ca is currently under revision and restructuring.

If any previous comments made on this blog were offensive to anyone, please accept the apologies of thelongwalk.ca.

What does this mean for the Liberal Party? In the short term, very little. Thomas Hubert really didn't count for much. He's just a kid (who hopefully has learned from this, though a future in politics is probably forever beyond his grasp now). In the medium term, Gerard Kennedy might suffer some fallout from this. Hubert worked on his leadership campaign. Hubert has resigned from his position with the British Columbia Young Liberal executive, but there has been no word from Gerard Kennedy. Scott Brison, who made the call for Hubert's resignation, is also a leadership candidate, and might make the point that he, Brison, reacted strongly and quickly in the situation, while Kennedy remained silent.

The long term is less certain, as always. The Liberal Party might split. In one camp are those who have no time for anti-Semites. Warren Kinsella, Scott Brison, and Jason Cherniak belong in this group.

In the other camp are people like Boris Wrzesnewskyj who are calling for Hezbollah to be taken off the list of terrorist groups while accusing Israel of war crimes:

Standing at the spot where an Israeli air strike killed several members of a Montreal family last month, Wrzesnewskyj said Israel's summer offensive against Lebanon was nothing less than "state terrorism."

"Over 1,200 dead and counting. Over 40,000 apartments and houses flattened. A country's infrastructure dismembered. You look around here," said Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre). "I believe what's happened is absolutely criminal."

Will we witness a fight between these two sides of the Liberal party? Are we seeing it already? The Light Side in the person of Jason Cherniak takes aim at the Dark Side:

On Borys, I can only say that I disagree wholeheartedly. In particular, I am disappointed that he would refer to "state sponsored terrorism" by Israel, like some follower of Svend Robinson. I call on Bill Graham to take away all of Borys' critic responsibilities immediately. He should in no way represent our national party on external affairs.

Meanwhile, the Dark Side represented by bigcitylib takes aim at the Light Side:

Warren Kinsella: Witchfinder General

Warren Kinsella has a fetish for denunciations that would make Joe Stalin proud.

Unfortunately, because of the gentleman's position within the Liberal Party, Kinsella and Co. have been able to screw a fairly abject apology out of [Hubert]. However, as far as i'm concerned it is Kinsella who needs to ask forgiveness. He should be explaining why blind support for Israel in the Summer War was such a great idea. Instead, he runs around like some Commisar from the Soviet Republic of Buttslavia.

As much as conservatives might be rubbing their hands with glee at the infighting that has started, I am less amused. I don't want the anti-Semites and other racists in this country to find a home in a mainstream Canadian political party. In large part, it's too late for that -- they already hold high positions in the Liberal Party. Scott Brison's description of the party as "a party of tolerance, multiculturalism and understanding" is pure wishful thinking right now. What if the likes of Brison, Kinsella, and Cherniak are forced out of the Liberal Party? What if the Liberal Party falls under the complete control of the racists? What if Canada falls under control of that Liberal Party?