NDP Adopts Discriminatory Convention Registration Process

I have attempted to contact the NDP using the online form on their website, Twitter and voicemail (remember the number doesn’t work after hours) and have received no reply from the party or explanation for this decision. They have also not responded to questions on the official Facebook event page asking why this decision was made. It seems that the party does not want to be forthcoming when it comes to explaining their decision to discriminate against young members of the party and those who are unwaged.

I have contacted each of the leadership campaigns through Twitter and e-mail asking them to look into this manner, and asking whether they thought that discriminating against youth and the unwaged in this manner was acceptable. So far only Romeo Saganash’s campaign has replied indicating that they believe that all members of the party should be treated equally and should all have the same access to convention registration (update – the Nathan Cullen campaign has now also replied saying this doesn’t seem right and will be in contact with the party). Someone from Brian Topp’s campaign has told me that he has attempted to contact the party but has been unable to get a reply as well.

Most disappointing of all however is the lack of response from the New Democratic Youth of Canada (NDYC). The NDYC is supposed to function as an advocate for youth within our party, but they seem to have not really responded to this at all. I let one of the NDYC co-chairs know this was happening, and they told me they would look into but I have not heard back from them regarding why youth are not being permitted to register online. It is also disappointing that it appears that the NDYC is taking no action to encourage the party to reverse this discriminatory position.

One of the co-chairs of the New Democratic Youth of Alberta (NDYA) was able to finally get someone from the leadership campaign office to respond after several attempts at contacting them. Rick Devereux attempted to justify this discrminatory practice to the NDYA co-chair by saying that they wanted to talk to all youth and unwaged people because some people had abused the discount offered to youth and unwaged people. I think this is unacceptable. All youth and all unwaged people should not be discriminated against simply because a few people who are not youth, and not unwaged people abused the process – if anything this shows that youth and the unwaged should not be discriminated against, because it is not them who are abusing the process. To make youth and unwaged people phone and beg the party (during Ontario business hours only of course) to be able to attend convention for less than $300 goes against all values that the NDP holds. I personally think that Jack Layton, who did so much to advocate on behalf of youth and the unwaged would be ashamed to know that the party is not allowing youth and the unwaged to register for convention online. Rick Devereux and anyone else involved in the decision to discriminate against these two groups should be ashamed of themselves.

I was actually likely to register at the full cost for convention because I can actually afford it (this is what I have been doing for provincial events since I completed school). However now that I know that other youth and unwaged people are being discriminated against in this manner I will definitely be only paying the youth delegate fees in protest. I will also be reconsidering any future donations to the party, because why should I donate to a party that has targeted a group I belong to for discrimination? This also leads me to ask – if the federal NDP will discriminate against these two groups in this fashion how can we trust them to not target other groups for similar discrimination in the future? Will they begin requiring members of other groups to speak to them on the phone before registering for events so they can interrogate the member and “ensure that they are actually a member of that group?”