Isn't That Typically Liberal?!

"Organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas really are trying to stand up for their people and that needs to be recognized."

"These are movements for national liberation, not terrorists."

"[Carney] is the man of the hour that we need, especially to stand up to Donald Trump south of the border."

It's not necessarily saying that I want us to become the next Venezuela or the next Cuba ... I'm just saying that we can learn from how they stress particular rights."

"Essentially we're talking about communities that are trying to defend themselves from these economic systems and the oppression that these economic systems have created."

Edmonton-area Liberal federal election candidate Rod Loyola 

Rod Loyola speaks at a provincial campaign event in Edmonton in 2019. Photo by David Bloom/Postmedia/File

 

It was at an anti-NATO protest that a video was produced of Edmonton's Rod Loyola where the man praised Palestinian terrorist Palestinian groups Hamas and Hezbollah. That video was forwarded on to the Liberal campaign by an investigative reporter with Postmedia's National Post, Rahim Mohamed. Liberal campaign spokesperson Isabella Orzco-Madison responded in an email: "Mr. Loyola is no longer our candidate for Edmonton Gateway."

 

The 2009 video was produced when Loyola who was at the time a rapper with People's Poets when he advocated for honouring, not condemning Hamas and Hezbollah, as courageous groups defending the Palestinians against Israeli occupation and oppression. Mr. Loyola expressed his opinion under the stage name of Rosouljah while performing at Edmonton's Churchill Square for a "Canada out of Afghanistan and say no to NATO" rally on the 60th anniversary of the military alliance.

 

As an NDP member of the Alberta legislative assembly since 2015, Mr. Loyola won nomination for the Liberal representative for the Edmonton riding, announcing his decision to leave provincial politics in favour of joining the Liberal team under its new Leader Mark Carney. His brand of politics, it appears, found sufficient favour to elect him to the provincial legislature. And this, despite that in the past he has been criticized for public support of political strongmen in Latin America.

 

In a 2021 podcast interview he spoke of being unfairly targeted in the legislature for "support for Latin American progressive governments", stating his belief that Cuba and Venezuela were more enlightened in some respects than Canada. This is a man listed as media contact for an Edmonton tribute to Venezuelan socialist leader Chavez after his 2013 death. That Chavez had been accused of gross human rights violations evidently wasn't found persuasive by Mr. Loyola. 

 

Loyola later disclosed in an interview that the Liberal Party was aware of his views on how Israel has treated the Palestinian people when they approached him to run. 

"I gave them full disclosure on my stance on Palestine and that I am a person who is going to fight for the rights of Palestinians always. I fully disclosed that to the party and I had no idea that this video existed. I'm going to continue speaking up for Palestine." Well, of course he will. And he would have under the Liberal banner, since that's their stance, too.

Somehow the acceptance of this man by both the NDP and the Liberals should not be surprising in the least. Both parties' actions, sympathies and reactions to world events appear to explain the attraction of a man with his proclivities and championing choices. He has decided to run as an independent instead of, as planned, a Liberal candidate. He would, after all, still have represented as a Liberal candidate had the party not been challenged in its complacent choice, by the investigative work of a wary journalist.

"A video from 16 years ago surfaced in which I made comments about Hamas and Hezbollah during a hip hop segment introduction at an anti-war rally."

"I did not think that an intro at a hip-hop segment 16 years later would get me ‘cancelled’ after close to a decade of serving as an elected representative at the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, but here we are."

"I unequivocally condemn brutal killings, terrorism, and abduction – whoever does it. What was perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 was completely unacceptable and heart breaking – the loss of innocent life irrespective of race, faith or creed is a loss to humanity. Additionally, the actions take by Israel, as noted by multiple international bodies, amounts to collective punishment upon a people who are already  systematically subjugated, which will never be justified, acceptable or inline with human rights."

"[I will] continue as an Independent in the original riding I intended to run, Edmonton Southeast."

Ousted Liberal Candidate Rod Loyola