Liberals drop Edmonton candidate who praised Hamas, Hezbollah in video

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The Liberals have revoked the candidacy of Edmonton-area candidate Rod Loyola after National Post asked about a video in which he praised the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah at a 2009 anti-NATO protest.

National Post had sent the video to the Liberal campaign on Thursday seeking its response to the comments. After multiple requests for a response over several hours, the campaign finally responded Thursday evening that Loyola was out.

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“Mr. Loyola is no longer our candidate for Edmonton Gateway,” wrote Liberal campaign spokesperson Isabella Orozco-Madison in an email.

Loyola, then a rapper with a group called People’s Poets, said in the 2009 video that Hamas and Hezbollah, both listed terrorist organizations in Canada, should be lionized, not condemned.

“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,” said Loyola — under the stage name Rosouljah — at the start of the set.

He and a bandmate were performing on the steps of Edmonton’s Churchill Square, for a “Canada out of Afghanistan and say no to NATO” rally marking the military alliance’s 60th anniversary.

The National Post sent a request to comment on the video to Loyola’s personal email address on Thursday morning, but didn’t get a response by the end of the day.

Loyola, an NDP member of Alberta’s legislative assembly since 2015, won the Liberal nomination for the new riding of Edmonton on March 26. He then announced he was leaving provincial politics to join Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s team.

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“(Carney) is the man of the hour that we need, especially to stand up to Donald Trump south of the border,” said Loyola at his March 29 campaign launch.

Loyola has drawn criticism for the past for his public support of autocratic Latin American political strongmen including Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

Loyola said in a 2021 podcast interview that he’s been unfairly targeted in Alberta’s legislature for his “support for Latin American progressive governments.”

He doubled down on this support, saying he believed that Cuba and Venezuela were more enlightened than Canada in some respects.

“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,” said Loyola.

Chavez, the Venezuelan socialist leader widely accused of gross human rights violations, died in 2013, and Loyola was listed as the media contact for an Edmonton tribute to him, which was billed as “an opportunity to express solidarity with the Venezuelan people and support for the Bolivarian Revolution.”

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“The event will also share with the media and local community the hard work, dedication and achievements of President Hugo Chávez and his government,” read the description

Loyola also compared Alberta’s oil and gas industry to right-wing military juntas that have seized power in parts of Latin America in a 2014 interview with Edmonton’s VUE Weekly magazine.

“Essentially we’re talking about communities that are trying to defend themselves from these economic systems and the oppression that those economic systems have created,” Loyola told the magazine.

Loyola ran in the 2014 Alberta NDP leadership election, which was won by Rachel Notley, finishing last with two per cent of the vote.

Loyola converted to Islam in 2018.

Carney confirmed at a Friday media appearance that Loyola is no longer the Liberal party’s candidate for Edmonton Gateway but didn’t say why his candidacy was pulled.

Casey Babb, a senior advisor to anti-extremism group Secure Canada, says he’s appalled, but not surprised, that Loyola was allowed to run under the banner of both the NDP and Liberals.

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“The fact that Loyola got this far into the process is appalling. But it’s also rather revealing in that radical Islamist views and progressive politics have become increasingly aligned in recent years on matters related to Israel and the Jewish world,” said Babb.

“This is — unfortunately — another example of someone who harbours dangerous ideologies looking at a progressive collective and thinking ‘I’d be a good fit here.’ This needs to change and people need to do a better job at vetting.”

Loyola confirmed in a statement posted to his personal website on Friday that the video led to his removal as a Liberal candidate.

“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,” wrote Loyola.

Loyola said in the statement that he no longer supports violent terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

”I want to be clear: I unequivocally condemn brutal killings, terrorism, and abduction – whoever does it,” he wrote.

Loyala added that he now plans to run as an independent candidate in neighbouring Edmonton Southeast, citing the Palestinian cause as one reason he’s continuing on.

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“Just as (Canadians) are standing together against the threat that is Donald Trump… the Palestinian people, against all odds, are standing up to the same threat of Trump’s proposed annexation of Gaza and his de facto support for Netanyahu to commit endless violence against a civilian population.”

National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com

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