The Green Party formally accepts the resignation of Annamie Paul as leader

OTTAWA – Annamie Paul’s long departure as Green Leader is officially over.

The federal party’s governing council voted Sunday to accept Paul’s resignation notice given last week, council president Lorraine Rekmans confirmed to the Star.

It means that, six weeks after he announced his intention to resign, Paul’s resignation as green leader has finally been completed.

Rekmans declined to comment on the outcome of prolonged negotiations between the party and Paul over his formal resignation this fall.

“We accept his resignation,” Rekmans said. “She is no longer the leader of the Green Party.”

The party also canceled a member vote that could have ousted Paul as leader later this month, Star confirmed.

Paul did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday morning.

The Greens’ next step will be to appoint an interim leader. A source, who spoke on the condition of not being named because she is not authorized to discuss internal affairs with the media, said the council is struggling to hold a vote to decide who will be the interim leader before its meeting on the 24th. of November.

Party stalwarts like Jo-Ann Roberts have suggested that former Green MP Paul Manly could fill the job, while former leadership contender Amita Kuttner has expressed interest in the job.

Paul’s resignation formally concludes his 13 months as green leader, a period in which bitter infighting over his leadership erupted in public after one of the party’s three MPs crossed the field to join the Liberals in June. The party’s governing council and interim executive director then attempted to oust Paul through a vote of confidence and a review of his green membership, moves that came to an abrupt halt after Paul launched an arbitration process under his contract of I work with the party.

Paul also accused the council members of racism and sexism after five councilors signed a letter claiming that Paul displayed an “autocratic attitude of hostility, superiority and rejection” and displayed “anger in long, repetitive and aggressive monologues” at the meetings. of Council.

After this summer’s federal elections, in which the party elected two deputies but saw its share of national votes fall to its lowest level since 2000, Paul announced that he would resign, calling his time as leader the “worst” experience of a lifetime.

The party then began negotiating with Paul’s attorney to formalize his resignation. Those talks dragged on for more than a month due to a lack of agreement on matters that two high-level Green experts described to the Star as “completely financial.”

Paul formally submitted his resignation notice last week, simultaneously announcing that he would be ending his membership in the party.

He was the first black and Jewish person chosen to lead a national political party in Canada.