Melissa De Genova should resign -- and the NPA should be shut out of office in 2022

For minimizing white supremacist violence, Melissa De Genova should resign -- and the NPA should be shut out of office in 2022

Source: https://www.citynews1130.com/2021/01/09/vancouver-councillor-capitol-siege-housing-protest/ 

The comments by Non-Partisan Association city councillor Melissa De Genova, comparing the far right and white supremacist violence in Washington, D.C. -- which resulted in five deaths in an attack on democracy itself -- to an anti-poverty protest at Vancouver’s City Hall several years ago shows more than a lack of judgment or perspective. The comparison is offensive, absurd, and a grotesque minimization of the threat of white supremacist and far right violence both in the U.S. and Canada, where groups linked to or like-minded with the forces that stormed the U.S. Capitol represent a serious ongoing threat to the lives and security of Black, Indigenous and people of colour as well as to democracy and civil society in Vancouver and beyond. 

Melissa De Genova should resign from office. But even that would not be sufficient. 

These comments by De Genova, coupled with the fact that the NPA currently has executive members who are vocal public supporters of Donald Trump and other far right causes, reveal a political party that is morally bankrupt and not deserving of having a single elected representative in Vancouver. We call on Vancouver residents to begin organizing as of today to decisively stop the NPA, and to un-elect all of their current sitting city councillors, school board trustees and park board commissioners in the 2022 municipal elections. 

We recognize that fascism and the far right and their apologists not only need to be defeated at the ballot box, but also in the streets and in civil society. We urge all groups and individuals who support this message to support grassroots anti-fascist and anti-racism organizing, and to build capacity to keep our city safe from these far right threats. We believe this task can only be achieved through movement building and community self-defense. 

We invite all groups and individuals to sign this statement.