Even Canadian sex scandals are pathetic
Thank goodness the United Nations no longer ranks Canada as the No. 1, best, most wonderful country on the planet in which to live. Some people — mainly those who had been elected to office and boasted it was primarily their doing — got carried away with their bragging year after predictable year.
Now that Canada ranks somewhere behind Switzerland in excitement, Romania in political freedoms and Portugal in frivolous joy, it is safe to speak out against the pompous boasting of the past and state that Canada — although fabulous and fantastic — does “pathetic” better than anybody.
Case in point: Canadian politicians can’t even pull off a proper sex scandal.
In France, they move with models. In Italy, they frolic with, um, women so young they could be mistaken for their granddaughters. Even in the U.S., they invite interns to be in- ventive vixens.
But in pathetic Canada, politicians rarely, if ever, arouse such passions. Instead, they indulge in alleged harassment.
Such is the sorry case of two Liberal MPs suspended from caucus, and this week expelled forever, for allegedly doing something or other to somebody or other.
Canadians haven’t been told the details, and apparently won’t be.
In other countries, the usually adulterous details of political sex scandals produce huge headlines and smirking newscasters.
In Canada, there will be no such news, if Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has his way with Ottawa journalists — in the platonic sense, of course.
Trudeau says he won’t release a report he commissioned into the behaviour of Newfoundland MP Scott Andrews and Montreal MP Massimo Pacetti.
As has been previously and widely reported, the pair were the targets of unspecified allegations by two female NDP MPs whose identities have not been made public. Pacetti allegedly had sex with one, while Andrews allegedly wanted to have sex with the other. Not at the same time, and not in the same room, mind you.
Both men have declared their innocence, and so far their respective wives apparently believe them.
Canadians in general can’t reasonably believe either the Liberal men or the NDP women, because so much information is being withheld from the public.
Aside from the salaciousness of the story and the seriousness of sexual harassment, there are extremely troubling aspects politically. Two MPs are being kicked out, and the public — their constituents, and people who voted for them — are not being told why.
Perhaps Ottawa trysts are more tantalizing than anyone dared imagine, and Trudeau deems Canadians not ready to face the facts of Liberal libidos.
More likely, it is just more of the condescension that Canadian politicians habitually display toward the public. Remove two MPs, don’t tell people why, but please, ask us no more questions.
People have a right to know why their elected representative is being removed from the party’s caucus. Allegations of sexual impropriety definitely make the issue more newsworthy and interesting, but this basic political principle should not be overlooked. Removal without full explanation is un- democratic and an insult to the voters.
Andrews’ case is particularly troubling, for a variety of reasons. According to The Canadian Press, the female NDP MP “alleged Andrews followed her home after a social event, forced his way through her door, pushed her against a wall, groped her and ground his pelvis against her.”
Based on court stories that regularly make the paper, that sounds a lot like sexual assault.
And yet, there is no mention of the woman filing a complaint with police. Surely, with all the recent publicity around former CBC superstar Jian Ghomeshi and former funnyman Bill Cosby, the NDP recognizes the importance of women standing up — especially in Parliament — and saying they’re not going to take it anymore.