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.

I knew this was going to happen but I’m still fucking livid right now.