Lascaris: Pednault and May Have Turned the Green Party into a Pro-War Machine

In a scathing interview with Aidan Jonah of The Canada Files former Green Party leadership candidate Dimitri Lascaris tore into the party’s leadership, particularly Elizabeth May and newly reappointed co-leader Jonathan Pedneault. Lascaris criticized the party’s foreign policy positions, their handling of the Ukraine war, and what he described as May’s tight grip on internal decision-making.

Pedneault’s “Song and Dance” on Trump and Opportunistic Return

Lascaris was particularly critical of Pedneault’s claim that his return to Green Party leadership was motivated by the election of Donald Trump.

“I literally spit out my coffee when I read this remark,” Lascaris said. “Does Jonathan Pedneault actually think he’s going to have the ability to stop Donald Trump from doing whatever Donald Trump is going to do?”

Instead, Lascaris suggested Pedneault’s return was purely self-serving, tied to May’s efforts to groom him as her successor. “He came back because now he could be formally designated as the co-leader of the party,” Lascaris argued, dismissing the official explanation as political theater.

From Peace to Proxies: The Green Party’s Foreign Policy Shift

One of Lascaris’s harshest critiques focused on how May and Pedneault have abandoned the Green Party’s founding principles of non-violence. He noted that under interim leader Amita Kuttner, the party explicitly opposed sending weapons to Ukraine. But within two months of May and Pedneault taking control, that policy was reversed.

“They publicly announced in January 2023 that they supported the delivery of weapons to Ukraine,” Lascaris said. “At first, they only supported ‘defensive weapons,’ but they never defined what that meant. Elizabeth May later implied that every weapon Canada had already sent—including artillery shells, battle tanks, and ammunition—fell under this ‘defensive’ category. At that point, it was clear they had simply adopted the Liberal Party’s foreign policy.”

Lascaris further accused May and Pedneault of caving to pressure from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), a right-wing lobbying group that has staunchly supported military aid to Ukraine.

“When May and Pedneault initially mentioned the need for negotiations to end the war, the UCC reacted furiously,” he explained. “Both Pedneault and May immediately retracted their statements, apologized profusely, and May even attended a UCC event to make amends. They were completely spineless.”

Since then, he argues, the Green Party has not only aligned itself with Canada’s pro-NATO establishment but has helped prolong a war that is disastrous for Ukraine itself.

“The longer this war goes on, the more territory Ukraine loses,” Lascaris said. “If I were May or Pedneault, I would resign in shame.”

CSIS Vetting and May’s Alignment With the Security State

Lascaris also tore into Elizabeth May’s recent proposal to have CSIS screen future Green Party leadership candidates for foreign affiliations. He pointed out that CSIS has a history of lying to the courts, illegal surveillance, and racial discrimination.

“Elizabeth May undoubtedly knows that CSIS is an agency that has broken the law repeatedly,” Lascaris said. He cited numerous scandals involving CSIS, including its illegal retention of Canadians’ private data, its history of racial profiling, and its role in the so-called ‘China interference’ scandal.

“Why would she want this disgraceful agency to play any role in deciding who can run for Green Party leadership?”

Lascaris speculated that May’s motivations were ideological and strategic:

“She knows that people like me or Alex Tyrrell—people with anti-imperialist views—are unlikely to be greenlit by CSIS. She wants to use the security state as a gatekeeping tool.”

He warned that if the Green Party adopts CSIS screening for leadership candidates, it could set a dangerous precedent for Canadian democracy.

“This is exactly the kind of proposal Erin O’Toole and right-wing hawks have been pushing for,” Lascaris said. “It’s authoritarian and completely anti-democratic.”

A Party in Decline

Lascaris painted a grim picture of the Green Party’s future under its current leadership. “The party is now projected to win just one seat,” he noted, citing 338Canada’s latest election predictions.

“This should be a moment of opportunity for the Greens—the Liberals are collapsing, the NDP is failing to gain ground, and there’s an opening for real progressive leadership. But instead, the party is weaker than ever.”

He laid the blame squarely at the feet of May and Pedneault, whom he accused of turning the Greens into a party indistinguishable from the Liberals on foreign policy.

“This is a raging indictment of the era of Elizabeth May,” he said. “She’s had multiple chances to build something new, and every time, she has instead centralized power and pushed the party in a pro-war, pro-establishment direction.”

As for whether he would ever run for Green Party leadership again, Lascaris was skeptical.

“The party has been so damaged by May, Paul, and now Pedneault,” he said. “I don’t know if anyone can salvage it at this point.”