‘ROPE’ SENATOR DESERVES COMPASSION

Opposition MPS are the ones who should apologize

If anyone should be apologizing in the case of Senator Pierre-hugues Boisvenu’s remark that convicted killers should have ropes in their jail cells with which to commit suicide, it is NDP MP Pat Martin and interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel.

This rabid duo has refused to show any understanding of the tragic circumstances that led Boisvenu to say such a thing.

Boisvenu, who was appointed to the Senate two years ago and is a member of the committee tasked with examining the federal Tories’ omnibus crime bill, has suffered the worst tragedy imaginable for a parent — his 27-year-old daughter, Julie, was raped and murdered in 2002.

In view of the terrible pain and grief with which Boisvenu must live, it is deeply shameful that Martin stooped to such despicable behaviour as calling Boisvenu an “asshole” for his comment. Meanwhile, Turmel yapped that Boisvenu had broken the law because his remark was tantamount to counselling to commit suicide, and to add to her inanity, she wanted to know if Prime Minister Stephen Harper agrees with Boisvenu’s statement.

This instantaneous nosedive into the ugliest of partisan politics was cruel and unnecessary, and it says more about those who would engage in it than it does about the senator himself.

Boisvenu, founder of the Murdered or Missing Persons’ Families’ Association, mitigated his remark by saying he is opposed to the death penalty. He later withdrew his comment about ropes and apologized for offending anyone whose life has been touched by suicide. He also said he was only talking about “three or four” of the worst offenders.

Now, however, apologies are due from Martin, Turmel and interim Liberal leader Bob Rae, who at least acknowledged Boisvenu’s tragedy, but chimed in that Boisvenu was saying the “prison system break the Criminal Code, which is equally ludicrous.”

These three know perfectly well that the Harper government does not advocate ropes in cells and that such a thing is unthinkable in a civilized country like Canada. Yet, Turmel showed a pit bull’s heartlessness. When Harper noted that “obviously the family of Mr. Boisvenu was a victim of a terrible tragedy,” and that Boisvenu had withdrawn the remark, she said, “That’s not good enough. What Senator Boisvenu did is against the law.”

Not only did Boisvenu lose one daughter to murder, another daughter, Isabelle, was killed in a car crash three years later. He has also had to live with the knowledge that Julie would still be alive today if her killer, Hugo Bernier, had served more than a mere three months in jail for a 1999 kidnapping and sexual assault of another Quebec woman before being paroled, despite a judge’s warning Bernier was at high risk to reoffend.

People’s emotional circumstances sometimes make them shrug aside decorum and say things on the spur of the moment. Boisvenu deserves compassion, not condemnation.