Dhahan Said He Was Not Pressured By His Supporters To Change Statement – He’s Simply Clarifying!
“I’m not changing my statement – I’m clarifying now that I did step down but I was pressured by the party to do so,” Dhahan told the LINK Wednesday morning. “I was trying to clarify statement Liberal leader Justin Trudeau made to CBC’s Andrew Chang and that is all that was.”
By R. Paul Dhillon
With News Files
VANCOUVER – Barj Dhahan is a relatively successful businessman who’s family does a lot of cultural and charitable work in Canada and India, even receiving Canadian government money for some of the charitable projects his family is involved in.
So after declaring that he had stepped down on his own accord despite all the loud and empty crying from those backing him, largely from the so-called moderate group, Dhahan told CBC this week that he was actually forced out by the federal Liberal organizers in BC.
Why now after all the crying and threats of leaving the party has already been done by his supporters? What does he gain by saying he was forced out when earlier he said he stepped down?
“I’m not changing my statement – I’m clarifying now that I did step down but I was pressured by the party to do so,” Dhahan told the LINK Wednesday morning. “I was trying to clarify statement Liberal leader Justin Trudeau made to CBC’s Andrew Chang and that is all that was.”
Sources tell the LINK that his supporters were furious after their crying fell on deaf ears and no one really cared from the party to deal with them and wanted them gone anyway.
But Dhahan insists that he was not pressured by his supporters to change his statement on being forced out but he said that he is sympathetic to his supporters who worked hard to sign up members only to be told that a nomination won’t take place.
“I don’t think it’s fair for the Liberal party to be making public statements about open nominations and then not having open nominations,” said, Dhahan, adding that the nomination process is manipulated and it defeats the purpose of an open democratic process.
Last week, decorated army man and ex-VPD cop Harjit Singh Sajjan — whom the party wanted and who apparently didn’t have enough members for an open nomination meeting – was acclaimed by the party and who will carry the Liberal flag against incumbent Conservative MP Wei Young
Asked if the controversy generated from the nomination and some of the moderate supporters unnecessarily bringing Sikh extremism into the whole mess will impact negatively with the party in terms of his future as federal Liberal, Dhahan said he doesn’t believe it will.
Dhahan told CBC News host Chang he was told by campaign co-chairs that the Liberals already had a candidate in mind for the riding and that they would prefer him to run in Surrey-Centre.
Dhahan contacted the CBC after his withdrawal from the Vancouver-South race was raised during Chang’s one-on-one interview with Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau last week.
“They weren’t simply offering me to run in [Surrey-Centre], they were saying that the nomination would be managed in such a way that I would be the sole candidate — essentially that I would be acclaimed,” said Dhahan.
“I said it’s a very interesting proposition, but I decline because Vancouver-South has been home to my family for over six decades. … I have no connectivity, no base in Surrey-Centre.”
Dhahan claims that in addition to receiving his nomination package late, one of his volunteers was sent an email saying Dhahan’s membership list was being audited, reported CBC.
“In the email, all it said was there were irregularities around addresses, names not matching, or telephone numbers not matching, possibly method of payment [discrepancies] … no specific details,” said Dhahan.
“There are at least 200 volunteers that are going about recruiting members, meeting people. So there can be clerical errors. Irregularities can happen. That’s a normal thing in nominations. If the information to that effect was provided to us, which we asked for, we were willing to address this.”
Dhahan says he does not know how widespread the alleged irregularities were because he never received a report.
Dhahan told CBC he believes Trudeau’s commitment to open nominations across the country is “genuine.”
“However, what happens in the provinces in certain ridings — he may not be aware of what is going on,” said Dhahan.
Dhahan made clear Trudeau never directly suggested that he drop out of the Vancouver-South race.
