It has been a most difficult year for Selina Robinson, who was ousted from B.C.’s NDP cabinet for her comments during a forum on Israel. She says she had long known the NDP had an antisemitism problem but has become estranged from her progressive peers since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

Robinson’s comments came during an online panel discussion hosted by B’nai Brith Canada on Jan. 30. She referred to the territory on which the modern state of Israel was founded as “a crappy piece of land with nothing on it — you know, there were several hundred thousand people but other than that, it didn’t produce an economy. It couldn’t grow things; it didn’t have anything on it.”