Monday February 5, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated 2:25 pm]
Political Analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
[As first published in the Island Social Trends V1N2 print edition – February 2, 2024 – Get the Premium PDF Edition]
UPDATE: 1:30 pm – Premier David Eby has removed Selina Robinson from her cabinet post but she will remain in caucus. [See separate article]
Many aspects of the Middle East conflict don’t reach too close to home in BC. But for Post-Secondary and Future Skills Minister Selina Robinson, her one comment during a Zoom call panel discussion has unleashed a firestorm of pushback against her and the BC government.
These are darker days for Robinson who is a long-time NDP cabinet minister.
Addressing what was likely mostly a pro-Israel crowd during the B’nai Brith call, Robinson seemed to make light of the United Nations land assignment in the late 1940s which allowed for Israel to create a nation state on land occupied by Palestinians (who were encouraged at the time to create their own nation state).
Critics say Robinson’s comment perpetuates harmful colonial narratives that ignore the history of Palestinian people in the region. Her defence was that she was referring to a lack of natural resources on the land and that no economy had been developed there.
On February 2 Premier David Eby said Robinson “used her position and her authority to essentially, in my opinion, to increase division in our province” and that he expects Robinson — one of his senior cabinet ministers — to make amends in affected communities.
Eby said he expects her to “do the work of going out to British Columbians to community leadership and communities to express her unreserved apology and to seek to repair some of that damage”.
Unfortunately for Robinson (who served in an even more senior position as Finance Minister under former Premier John Horgan), this event has cascaded beyond opinions or positions on the Middle East conflict; she seems to have shot herself in the foot with regard to overall public opinion, for having misused her level of authority to advance slanted or misinformed views at a time when BC is grappling with anti-racism, antisemitism, and anti-Islamic views.
Robinson likely regrets lapsing into a conversational style which can happen if one forgets they are in the public eye. But she is a seasoned politician. For her to make what seems like a slip was possibly more of an in-the-moment case of trying to bond with a specific audience with whom she shares intense feelings about the current war between Israel and Hamas. However, her lapse more broadly underscores some deep divisions in our society.
Ironically, just a few months ago the Premier had delivered accolades to Robinson in the legislative assembly for her leadership after the October 7 attack by Hamas, saying on October 16 that her work in the community was helping people feel safe. On February 2 the Premier said that Robinson’s comments have “caused harm and made people feel unsafe”.
BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau told Island Social Trends that so far there haven’t been “any real consequences” and that the “burden and responsibility of being in a position of power is a heavy one”.
Furstenau chimed in to repeat the premier’s sentiment about responsibility: “It is really important to demonstrate to the public that we expect people people in positions of power to act and to speak responsibly,” she said on February 2.
Given the upcoming provincial election Eby is unlikely to turf one of his own cabinet ministers unless this issue becomes an unresolvable liability.
===== RELATED:
- Eby boots Selina Robinson from cabinet (February 5, 2024)
- Minister Selina Robinson: true grit & big picture (October 20, 2023)
- No place for hate in BC says Premier (October 16, 2023)
- New Eby Cabinet announcement Dec 7 (December 7, 2022)
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Island Social Trends Editor Mary P Brooke has been writing BC and regional Vancouver Island political analysis since 2008.