B.C. MLA's office plastered with 'hateful' messages after resignation, premier says

Hours after B.C. MLA Selina Robinson resigned from her NDP cabinet position, her constituency office was plastered with messages calling for her to be removed from caucus as well.

Social media video posted Tuesday morning by the account Canadian Antifa shows Robinson's office in her Coquitlam-Maillardville riding covered with posters and chalk messages, including "Gaza lives" and "Free Palestine."

One message accused Robinson, who is Jewish, of being a "Jewish supremacist," while another said "Zionism is Nazism."

Premier David Eby condemned the incident on Tuesday, describing some of the messages left on the MLA's office as "hateful."

"This is wrong. Peaceful protest cannot include spreading hate," Eby wrote on X, the platform formerly called Twitter.

The messages were cleared off Tuesday morning.  

Robinson stepped down from her role as minister of post-secondary education Monday amid growing outcry over comments she made at a recent B'nai Brith Canada panel, in which she said Israel was founded on a "crappy piece of land with nothing on it."

That led to calls from pro-Palestinian groups and others – including Independent Jewish Voices and the Jewish Faculty Network – for her resignation.

A collection of B.C. mosques and Islamic associations also sent Eby a letter over the weekend informing him they would not welcome any NDP candidate into their sacred spaces during the next election unless he took action against the MLA.

Robinson previously apologized for the remarks, which she said were a "flippant" reference to the land having "limited natural resources."

"I understand that this flippant comment has caused pain and that it diminishes the connection Palestinians also have to the land. I regret what I said and I apologize without reservation," she wrote on social media last week.

While announcing Robinson's resignation on Monday, Eby described the remarks as deeply hurtful.

"They were belittling and demeaning to a community of people that is already under profound pressure given the war in the Middle East, and already feeling that their voices aren't being heard," Eby said, adding that Robinson spent the weekend trying to make things right with impacted communities.

After her resignation, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs lamented the loss of a "great ally" for the Jewish community, particularly in the midst of an "alarming increase in antisemitism."

"The loss of MLA Robinson is especially distressing as we no longer have our strongest advocate – who understands the challenges and sensitivities of the Jewish community – at the table," wrote Nico Slobinsky, vice-president of the CIJA's Pacific region, in a statement.

That sentiment was echoed Tuesday by Ezra Shanken with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, who called it "shocking" to see the resignation of "probably the most prominent Jewish parliamentarian since Dave Barret himself was premier of B.C. -- an NDP premier.”

Still, others continued to push for stronger measures against Robinson,

Palestinian-Canadian lawyer Laith Sarhan, the spokesperson for a group of protesters who rallied for Robinson's removal this week, said the MLA has more work to do bridging the gap with those affected by her comments.

“I think she should be removed from caucus," Sarhan said. "For that vantage point to change, I think it would really be necessary for Selina Robinson to take proactive steps with the Palestinian community especially.”  

On Wednesday, the Coquitlam RCMP said officers were dispatched but "the outside of the office had already been cleaned up and there was no physical damage located."