It’s what the people want: Sarah Jama is still knocking on doors
The NDP loses more than an MPP by icing out Sarah Jama. They stand to lose their credibility as the progressive option for the next generation.
Last Saturday, I took the bus to Gage Park and met up with a group of people gathered around the fountain. There were about 30 people, maybe a few more, people with children, friends, strangers, old people, young people, all had come to take to the streets around the park, knock on doors and canvass the area for Independent MPP Sarah Jama.
There’s no election. Well, not yet. But that doesn’t matter. When I asked her what the point was to the effort, she replied that during the by-election for Hamilton-Centre, people complained that the only time they saw their MPP was when there was an election. She promised she would be different. So Jama and her team of volunteers gather every Saturday to canvass constituents in a different part of Hamilton-Centre, listening to what the people have to say, seeing if they need help and connecting with them outside of an election.
Apparently people like that, being listened to. Go figure. Some people like to talk politics and as an Independent with no party baggage to carry around, Sarah is free to listen and comment without constraint. That’s got to feel good. During the summer, she canvassed during the heat wave to see if people needed any help. People are surprised they’re not being campaigned; that their MPP is interested in what they have to say, to hear what they need.
I wasn’t there to canvass. Over the last few months I’ve met with Sarah to talk about what happened to her after her expulsion from the NDP caucus and her censure in the Ontario legislature. I wanted to get her response to the recent assertion by Marit Stiles regarding Hamilton Centre that as far as she knew, as NDP party leader, the candidate “won’t be her,” referring to Sarah Jama.
As a resident of Hamilton-Centre I have an interest in what happened to our duly elected voice, which was unilaterally silenced and cut adrift without any consultation with either the HC riding association, the constituents, or even the party. It feels undemocratic. That bothers me.
No one knows how the decision was made or when it was made. No one knows why NDP leadership remains steadfast in their refusal to budge and relent to the many voices who are petitioning that Sarah Jama be let back in to the NDP. And there are many.
Some people know. But not the people who are arguing for her return. They see the process as shrouded in mystery and lacking any merit to the suggestion that Jama posed a threat or danger to the safety of colleagues or that her “insubordination” should suffer such a harsh response.
After talking with Sarah I was curious to see what kind of support she enjoyed in the community. I went to her nomination meeting and talked to some of the people in the crowd. I listened to those who stood up to speak for her, all respected members and leaders in our community. Of course, everyone is going to be supportive, but the question was: why? Why do people support Sarah Jama? Die-hard, life-long NDPers have quit the party to follow Jama into the wilderness of Independency. Why is a good question. Why and was it worth it?
Not everyone likes Sarah Jama. She has been a polarizing figure for her work as an activist in such causes as Black Lives Matter, police budget reform, disability and tenants rights, and most importantly for this discussion, her advocacy for Palestinian human rights, a cause she has championed at least since her days as a student at McMaster University. Those early protests brought her to the attention of pro-Israeli organizations such as Canary Mission that have used her activism for human rights to smear her reputation as an anti-Semite, an accusation she vehemently denies and one not supported by the number of Jewish people who stand beside and behind her. Most recently, a report put out by the Israel Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism and the National Centre for Combatting Antisemitism has listed Sara Jama first (alphabetically?) on their list of four “Antisemitic Generators and Influencers in Canada”. How is this not foreign interference?
As a young worker out of university, Pro-Israel activists harassed her workplace in efforts to get her fired trying to interfere with her ability to earn a living. But, according to so many of her supporters, to know Sarah is to respect Sarah. Such efforts were a waste of time and indicative of the level of harassment people are subject to who support Palestinian human rights.
When Jama decided to run for the Ontario legislature for Hamilton Centre, she signed up a record number of new members and was acclaimed to the role. No one wanted to run against her, for whatever reasons. She won the by-election. Overwhelmingly. As one of the youngest MPPs Jama represents a new face of the NDP, young, diverse, committed to making change. There was excitement in the air among the left in Hamilton, that a voice for a new generation was emerging that could reinvigorate and mobilize against Conservative money and organization.
All that came to a crashing halt when Hamas attacked Israel, killing people and taking hostages. Jama issued a statement. Not lightly. Not without, as she says, waiting three days in anxious anticipation. She recalled:
“I had to say something. I was getting calls from people in my riding, folks were like ‘my family’s under rubble. I need someone to say something about what’s happening. We need support’, and I look online and some of my colleagues made statements about Israel’s right to defend itself, or condemnation of Hamas, but nobody was talking about what was going to happen to the Palestinian people because by day three, I think, like 3,000 people were killed. … We did not think we were going to get the reaction that we did at all.”
Turns out she was right in calling for restraint, for a ceasefire, as everyone is finding out, and echoing, now.
Demands for an apology came swift and loud, which she made in a statement shared by the Ontario NDP. After refusing to read another apology in the legislature contained in a statement prepared by the party, she was kicked out. Immediately. The Conservatives swooped in and voted to censure her. A cynical person would cock an eyebrow at the rapidity with which it all went down. Was Jama set up? It’s another good question but I doubt anyone would cop to it.
The expulsion created a wave of vociferous discontent expressed by not only by those in the HC riding association, who quit en masse to set up independently as the Independent Hamilton Centre Constituency Association, but several other riding associations protested as well, showing solidarity with Jama. If party central can unilaterally extend its power and kick out one popular, duly elected candidate, it can do it to others as well.
The Hamilton Centre NDP Riding Association has not recovered from the shock. The few that remain constitute the barest of a functioning executive. They continue to support Jama and advocate for a end to the schism. The Ontario NDP party executive passed a motion to explore options for Hamilton Centre, including bringing Jama back. There’s a story too, and it includes the fight for the Hamilton Centre NDP but that’s another post. It’s safe to say at this point that the report remains to be completed.
When I asked Jama about her response to Stiles’ assertion, she replied she was reserving her comments until after the democratic process is completed and the report comes out. The NDP is Jama’s ideological home, it’s where she cut her political teeth. Matthew Green, Hamilton Centre NDP MP is a strong supporter of Jama. It’s the party system through which we govern ourselves; party affiliation provides plenty of organizational, informational and financial support. Jama knows the benefits of belonging to the party and doesn’t want to jeopardize the hope that a bridge can be built. But in the meantime, work needs to get done, people still need representation.
Operating as an Independent is tough work, everything had to be recreated from scratch. The Independent Constituency Association, aka the old NDP Riding Association stepped up and set up a new structure to support Jama in her role as an Independent.
However, if the right rapproachement were achieved, this rift could be on the way to being healed and Hamilton Centre could be better positioned to challenge the Conservatives. As it stands now, the NDP, perceived as being unable to get its act together and operating under authoritarian and draconian processes risks bleeding support to the Liberals who are only too happy to take advantage of NDP dysfunction to bolster their numbers. People have already left.
The NDP had a popular, highly competent and up and coming young MPP who took the job seriously. She came in with the idea that through politics, she could be more effective in bringing about the changes that she believes will contribute to a better society. She needed a leader who saw her value and respected her autonomy, one who was willing to work with her for the better of the party as a whole. The party lost a lot more than just an MPP. They lost relevance with the needs of people today, particularly the youth. And Marit Stiles lost credibility as a competent, compassionate leader.
As I talked to the those gathered around the fountain waiting for Jama to arrive, they all echoed familiar sentiments: Sarah has integrity. She has principles. She has compassion and she cares about people who need to be cared about: the disabled, tenants, the marginalized and vulnerable. One man I spoke with was excited she was an Independent; having disengaged from the political process, Jama has rekindled in him a lost interest in politics. With voter engagement at pathetic levels, maybe the story of young woman of colour, a disabled woman, bucking the system with which people are disillusioned appeals to many.
As an Independent, Jama has the support of Hamilton labour behind her. Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario, came out to knock on doors. She has the support of the ward councillors who showed up to canvass for her. She has the backing of the federal NDP MP for Hamilton Centre. Local not-for profits have worked with her and stand by her.
It is puzzling that the NDP leadership would want to alienate the people of Hamilton Centre, who have solidly supported the NDP since 2007 when the riding was formed. NDP leadership have to contend with the fact that they will lose Hamilton Centre unless an olive branch is extended and a new way forward is found.
It may already be too late.