I do not agree with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's controversial
decision last week to mention in the House of Commons last week the
story published in The Vancouver Sun about the Air India inquiry and
Liberal MP Navdeep Bains because it's all innuendo and can lead to
serious accusations which, at the very least, have not been proven.
Moreover, Harper did not respect the first rule of engagement:
don't attack while the enemy is engaged in an internal fight that's
destroying itself.
Before their Montreal convention, the Liberal Party of Canada was a
party without a leader, now it's a party with three leaders. There's a
leader on paper, a second leader in reality, as well as a third, fourth,
fifth, sixth and many more leaders just standing by. Filling in the
blanks on this Liberal telenovela has got to be the subject of a future
column.
But the Air India-Bains affair is also hypocritical on the part of
Liberals who believe that slander and character assassination are to be
condemned only when they're launched from a political opponent.
Yes, the innuendo against Bains has to be condemned, but Harper was
just reading a newspaper story. So why he is under fire from the
Liberals, and the media, while the newspaper and the journalist are not
even mentioned?
Does it mean that we, the media, have the right to write about
innuendo and politicians don't have the right to read it in the House?
Give me a break. Question Period is the most deceitful TV reality
show and should be rated 'R'. The MPs lie every day. They lie when they
ask questions and they lie when they give answers.
Who are the liars? I can't name names because I don't have the same
Parliamentary immunity they give themselves, but needless to say,
politicians are citizens who have the legal right to lie in the House of
Commons Chamber. They slander, assassinate characters and lie on a daily
basis.
As I said, I did not like what Prime Minister Harper did last week,
but I did not like the reaction of the media that chastised the
Conservative leader only because he was reading what we, the
journalists, wrote.
Also, I could not believe the 'indignation' of the Liberals MP
rushing in support of one of their own. I was asking myself where were
they when the former minister of immigration Joe Volpe was singled out
and politically assassinated with innuendo and practices that have been
at the base of the Liberal Party organization today and for decades.
Volpe was called 'an incompetent minister' by an incompetent
journalist, he was compared to being a pedophile in a TV show and
ridiculed by the Conservatives. Yes, these are the same Conservatives
who tried to read the story from The Vancouver Sun. Volpe was
absolved, of course, after the convention, by the party and Elections
Canada.
But I have a question: does anybody recall seeing a Liberal MP
coming to the defence of one of their own? If anything, Harper was not
even given the opportunity to read what we, the media, wrote regarding
Bains.
So what's the difference between the innuendo against Bains and the
innuendo against Volpe? Well, the latter was slandered by the Liberals
and the former by a Conservative.
