Former Cabinet Minister Cotler Encouraged Liberal MP Housefather to Sit as Independent

Justice Committee Chair Anthony Housefather waits to start a committee meeting in Ottawa on March 13, 2019. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Former Liberal MP and cabinet minister Irwin Cotler says he suggested that Liberal MP Anthony Housefather resign from the party’s caucus to sit as an independent, as anger toward the Liberals from the Jewish population of Housefather’s riding of Mount Royal would make the upcoming electoral race difficult.

“I don’t think that [Housefather] should be punished because of the desire to punish the Liberal party, which was part of the dynamic in Toronto–St Paul’s,” said Cotler, who held the Mount Royal riding before Housefather.

“I understand why there is anger towards the Liberals, but I don’t think he should end up being victimized for it. So, I’ll still be supporting him,” Cotler said in an interview with the National Post.

Cotler said he doesn’t believe in floor-crossing “as a matter of principle” and would not continue supporting Housefather if he had moved to the Conservative Party, which he was considering.

“Anthony effectively believed not that he was leaving the Liberal party, but the Liberal party had left him. So, I said ‘make a statement, sit as an Independent’,” Cotler said.

Housefather, who is Jewish, has held the Quebec riding of Mount Royal since 2015, when he ran to replace Cotler. Housefather is set to face off against Conservative Neil Oberman, a lawyer who filed an injunction on behalf of McGill University students against an anti-Israel encampment on campus in early 2024.

Cotler said the riding, which has the second-largest Jewish population in Canada at 31 percent, could be a toss-up between the Liberals and Conservatives due to growing anger at the Liberal Party since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas that triggered Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Motion Recognizing Palestinian Statehood

Housefather was one of just three Liberal MPs who voted against an amended March 18 NDP motion calling for the recognition of Palestinian statehood. A day after the vote, an emotional Housefather told reporters he had a “hard time” with the vote and would be taking “the time to reflect” on whether he would stay on as a parliamentary secretary and Liberal MP.

It was at that time that he seriously considered crossing the floor, Cotler said.

On April 5, Housefather announced he had decided to stay on as a Liberal MP, as the “greatest value to Canadians is staying in caucus.” However, he said that the adoption of the motion and the events preceding it had ”angered me as much as they angered most of the Jewish Canadians that I have communicated with.”