Engler Responds: “This is an attack on activism — and an attempt to rig the election.”
The New Democratic Party has formally barred longtime anti-war author and activist Yves Engler from appearing on the ballot in the 2025 federal leadership race. Speaking with Global Green News, Engler described the party’s vetting process as “sloppy, biased, and fundamentally undemocratic,” a decision he sees as a direct attack on both his politics and the broader culture of grassroots activism within the party.
The NDP’s Leadership Vote Committee accused Engler of a wide range of supposed violations, including problematic foreign-policy positions on Rwanda, Russia, and Syria, an entire section devoted to antisemitism, and even allegations of harassment and “lack of commitment” to the NDP. Yet Engler says the process behind these accusations was astonishingly thin. In the case of harassment, the committee provided no evidence whatsoever—no complainants, no examples, not even a description of the alleged incidents. For the foreign-policy and antisemitism accusations, the committee cited Engler’s own articles, all of which he and his legal team addressed extensively in a 4,500-word rebuttal.
No Evidence
“They just make claims with nothing. No evidence, no names, no incidents — nothing.”
One of the most bizarre claims was that Engler had publicly stated his intention to run for the Green Party while campaigning for the NDP. The committee’s “proof” was a fake impersonator account on Bluesky, containing outlandish and obviously satirical posts. “It’s literally a parody account,” Engler said, laughing at the absurdity, though he noted that the fact the party treated it as real evidence speaks volumes about the quality of the vetting process.
The committee also interpreted a 30-minute interview with activist Ken Stone as evidence that Engler was sympathetic to the Assad regime. But in that very interview, Engler explicitly challenges Stone’s views, stopping him midsentence to clarify that he rejects that depiction of Assad and pointing out the regime’s authoritarian nature. None of this, Engler notes, was acknowledged by the vetting committee.
Party Committee Ignores Appeal
After Engler submitted his detailed rebuttal, the independent Review Committee responded with what Engler describes as breathtaking minimalism. Instead of addressing a single point, the committee issued a one-sentence decision affirming the exclusion. There were no counter-arguments, no engagement with the documentation, and no sign they had even read the appeal.
Engler’s lawyer, Dimitri Lascaris, who expected something weak, reportedly reacted with disbelief at the complete absence of justification. “They just ignored everything. Literally nothing in response” said Engler.
Engler argues that the deeper meaning of the exclusion becomes clear when looking at the foreign-policy allegations. The NDP accused him of contradicting “democracy, international law, and solidarity with oppressed peoples” — a claim he finds surreal given the party’s own record. He notes the NDP’s past support for NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia, the Libya war in violation of UN resolutions, and the first five years of the war in Afghanistan. The committee, Engler says, is composed of people who appear deeply internalized into official Canadian foreign-policy ideology and seem genuinely unaware of how disconnected their worldview is from global reality. “They really flipped the world upside down.”
Branding Activism and Independent Journalism as “Harassment”
But for Engler, the most striking pattern in the decision is that it functions as a systemic attack on activist political culture. The “harassment” allegations, he argues, are simply attempts to criminalize public confrontation of politicians — a tactic long used by grassroots activists to hold power accountable. The antisemitism and foreign-policy accusations, meanwhile, amount to policing acceptable political language, especially around Palestine, NATO, and Canada’s imperial role in world affairs. The message, he says, is unmistakable: dissenting left-wing activism is unwelcome in the NDP leadership race.
“They frame confronting politicians as harassment. That’s an attack on activism itself.”
In response to the exclusion, Engler will now appeal directly to the NDP Federal Council — the only body with the authority to overturn the decision. He argues that the council must intervene to “save party democracy” and prevent what he sees as a devastating blow to the party’s credibility. Whether they act or not, he warns, the fallout will not disappear quietly.
