Liberals dump second candidate, this time over Hamas comments

Former Edmonton Gateway Liberal candidate Rod Loyola is pictured. (CTV News)

A former Alberta lawmaker who was running for the Liberals is “no longer a candidate” after video emerged in which he praised Hamas and Hezbollah.

Rod Loyola had been running for the Liberals to represent the newly created riding of Edmonton Gateway.

Loyola had been in the middle of his third term as an NDP member of Alberta’s provincial legislature when he resigned his seat to run as a Liberal just last week.

A story published in The National Post Thursday pointed to video of Loyola at a 2009 anti-NATO rally.

“Organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas really are trying to stand up for their people and that needs to be recognized. These are movement for national liberation, not terrorists,” he says in the video.

Both groups are listed as terrorist organizations in Canada. The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas launched a massive surprise attack against civilians in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages.

During a campaign stop in Montreal Friday, a reporter asked Liberal Leader Mark Carney, in French, why Loyola was shown the door over his Hamas comments while Carney refused to boot former candidate Paul Chiang over some of his past comments.

“With respect to Mr. Chiang, he’s resigned. That was the correct decision. And Mr. Loyola is no longer a candidate,” Carney said.

Carney had been criticized for refusing to dump Chiang, who told Chinese-language media earlier this year that people should collect a bounty on his Conservative rival, who was wanted under Hong Kong’s controversial National Security Law.

Chiang eventually stepped down as a candidate late Monday, saying the election was too important and that he didn’t want to be a “distraction.”

It’s not clear whether the Liberals asked either candidate to resign.

Loyola did not immediately return a request for comment from CTV News, but in a statement posted on his social media Friday, he announced he will run as an independent in the riding of Edmonton Southeast.

“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,” Loyola said.

“I want to be clear: I unequivocally condemn brutal killings, terrorism, and abduction - whoever does it.

“As I told the Liberal Party yesterday, I do not need to apologize for a hip hop segment that had at its thrust the need to stand with the oppressed, nor for affirming their right to live in peace, security, and sovereignty.”

Carney was also asked Friday whether he feels the Liberals’ vetting process is sufficiently robust given the fact that two candidates have now been dropped over past comments unearthed by the media.

“In general terms, I would say yes,” Carney said in French. “But if there’s a problem, it has to be fixed, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Both the Liberals and Conservatives have faced questions over the quality of their vetting processes. Loyola is the second Liberal candidate to depart the race this week.

Hours later, the Conservatives ousted a Quebec candidate who accused an École Polytechnique massacre survivor running for the Liberals of playing the “victim game” in her quest for stronger gun regulations.

So far, seven candidates have dropped out of the election, with most of them being shown the door over past comments.

The Conservative Party announced Tuesday and Wednesday that it had dropped candidates in Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, Westminster-Burnaby-Maillardville and Etobicoke North.

One of the candidates was dropped after CTV News obtained audio of a podcast in which he joked about former prime minister Justin Trudeau getting the death penalty.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre nevertheless told reporters Thursday that he feels his party has the strongest vetting process and that they have “zero tolerance for anyone who acts unacceptably.”

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Edmonton’s Diego Romero.