Local Tories doing damage control
By Eve Edmonds
The Conservative party's Richmond riding association is in full-blown damage control following comments a former campaign staffer made about Jewish-owned media.
It even tried to revoke Robbie Robertson's membership - before learning he didn't have one.
"I can confirm he's not a member. I don't know if he ever was," said riding association president Gary Cross.
Robertson, Conservative candidate Darrel Reid's former campaign manager, caused a stir earlier this week when he referred to a liberal bias in the Jewish-owned CanWest media empire.
"The CanWest Global media empire is controlled by a Jewish family and they have been the most aggressive family to attack Christians, especially Conservative Christians," Robertson told the News on the day of the federal election.
Robertson said he thought Christian Conservative candidates were unfairly targeted by CanWest MediaWorks.
Reid immediately distanced himself from the comments saying Robertson doesn't speak on his behalf.
Since then, Holden Bowker, Reid's current spokesman has contacted media outlets to inform them that Robertson is no longer affiliated with the campaign and hasn't been for a number of weeks.
Robertson has been on medical leave, he explained. That information was kept from the media, said Bowker, to protect Robertson's privacy and to stave off any notion that the campaign was in disarray.
Nonetheless, Robertson hasn't retracted the statements, but admits they should have been "prefaced" with the fact "we were creating an organization and asking the questions as to the slant of CanWest Global. Without that preface I thought it looked like a conspiracy theory coming from me. I didn't intend that."
Robertson said he noted that CanWest is owned by the Asper family, who are of Jewish heritage, because "this is a community that suffered the worst persecution. You'd think they would be the last people to persecute people publicly."
Nevertheless, evangelical Christian Conservative candidates were systematically singled out and "isolated" by CanWest reporters, he said.
"We have to ask, why? Who gave that direction?"
Mark Weintraub, chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress Pacific Region, said Robertson's comments are "highly offensive."
"They really traffic some of the discredited and conspiratorial theories about Jewish power that have no place in Canadian society," he said, adding that he doesn't believe the comments reflect the ideas of mainstream Canadian society or the Conservative party.
Nor does he believe the comments reflect Reid's view.
"We met with Mr. Reid to articulate our concerns about hate crime and how to combat hate crime. Everything we heard from Mr. Reid was very supportive."
In fact, Gerry St. Germain, a Conservative senator and perhaps the most senior Tory in B.C., went so far as to phone the CJC to stress that these views do not reflect the views of the Conservative party.
While Weintraub dismissed Robertson's comments as an "aberration" and "absurd," he suggests they have to be addressed, which is why the CJC issued a press release denouncing them.
Howard Jampolsky, who ran against Reid for the nomination, is a director on the Richmond Conservative riding association board. He is also Jewish, and said the comments are a shock.
When Jampolsky lost the nomination, he warned of the problems that could ensue if the Conservatives focus on a socially conservative agenda, however, he says, "I couldn't have foreseen comments like this coming out."
He added that Robertson's views are not shared by the party. To that end, he said he is proud of how swiftly the Conservative party has reacted to the comments.
published on 01/28/2006
http://www.richmond-news.com/issues06/014206/news/014206nn1.html
