BC Liberals call for Horgan to explain New Westminster candidate’s ‘deplorable’ comments

THE BC Liberals on Wednesday said that John Horgan’s star NDP candidate in New Westminster is the latest to proudly support extreme views.

Jennifer Whiteside, a long-time NDP activist, has compared modern workplaces to slavery, celebrated brutal Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, and promoted boycotts of Israel, they said.

Last Saturday it was Bryn Smith in Surrey-White Rock, and today it’s Jennifer Whiteside.

According to the BC Liberals, Whiteside’s ‘extreme views’ include:

  • In May 2019, Whiteside published a Facebook post that compared modern workplaces to “the master/slave relationship”, going on to praise BC NDP legislation on that basis.
  • In 2016, Whiteside shared an opinion piece arguing “It’s time for a boycott of Israel” – a position repeatedly rejected by all major Canadian federal and provincial political parties.
  • In 2013, Whiteside shared a Facebook post mourning the death of “Comandante Hugo Chavez”, the brutal Venezuelan dictator. According to a 2017 report by Human Rights Watch, Chavez oversaw “severe shortages of medicines, medical supplies, and food….[and] protesters have been arbitrarily detained and subject to abuse by security forces.” In 2012, Whiteside shared a Facebook post celebrating the re-election of Chavez.
  • In 2012, Whiteside also shared an article from the notoriously anti-Israel website The Electronic Intifada, whose name references two violent Palestinian uprisings marked by deadly terrorist attacks.
  • Whiteside shared content accusing Israel of apartheid and colonization, including a 2012 Occupy Wall Street statement Whiteside praised that blamed Israel’s theft of Palestinian land on capitalism and called for “overthrowing our regimes at home”.
  • Also in 2012, Whiteside shared a Facebook post claiming that “we have a capitalism problem”, and promoting the ideas of Revolutionary Communist Party USA leader Bob Avakian.