Tragedy and opportunism
Aweek after the Lac-Mégantic tragedy and the ashes are still settling. So many questions remain unanswered, so many people remain missing, and so many lives remain shaken by the disaster. In the aftermath, nothing seems quite certain.
As a result, at this point in the game, when no definitive culprit has been identified and when no final consequences have been enacted, public discourse with regards to the tragedy has been polluted by an endless stream of speculation. Currently, no one seems to know quite who or what to categorically blame, so all the punditry and analysis amounts to little more than hot air.
Sometimes, however, hot air is all you need. In the wake of Lac-Mégantic, more than a few have manipulated a tragic event to suit their own self-serving purposes.
Take Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair. Speaking to the media soon after the explosion, Mulcair expressed concern over federal cost cutting, citing a perceived push by government towards self-regulation by railroad companies and, by extension, less government attention to transport safety standards for Canadians.
It’s a carefully worded message — not an accusation, merely an observation so as to not come back to haunt the NDP in the future. “We’re not saying this is the specific cause of this accident, I want to be clear on that,” Mulcair said to CTV News shortly afterward.
Nevertheless, there is an obvious intent behind the statement and, despite the disclaimer, the public is delivered a deliberate message about the government’s role in the catastrophe.
To a degree, you can’t blame Mul- cair for his opportunism. Opposition, in essence, is based on being opportunistic — party staffers waiting eagerly for their opponent’s latest missteps or gaffes to flaunt their weaknesses and catch the latest headline.
Sure, opposition is also about keeping the government in line, but don’t tell me that selfless public service is the only thing driving Mulcair or anyone like him.
No politician, and certainly no party leader, is completely void of ambition and every move he makes is conscious of one day ascending to the PMO. It is the nature of the beast, and those with ambition will jump at any opportunity to reach a higher pedestal. That being said, no matter the motivation behind the actions, playing on a disaster where dozens of people are presumed dead is political opportunism of the worst kind.
Similar in its self-interest was the revived pipeline debate inspired thanks to the Lac-Mégantic explosion.
Just like Mulcair, long before anything was made certain, media from across the country immediately were quick to connect safety concerns raised by the disaster to one of this year’s ubiquitous news stories: the merits and the risks of transporting oil via pipelines versus other methods of transportation, in this case railways.
Once again, despite very few facts being known, Lac-Mégantic became the backdrop for renewed debate over Keystone XL and the like, and became part of many commentators’ pro-pipeline arsenals. For some, LacMégantic morphed from a one-time occurrence into something of a warning of things to come should we stick to the status quo.
The whole thing, from opposition statements to pipeline debates, strikes a sour note. It just seems that while so much remains unanswered, any selfish speculation is not only untimely, but also insensitive and in poor taste to those enduring the crisis.
I’m not naïve enough to think that such a tragic and dramatic event isn’t going to spark reaction or inspire debate, but lately the news has left a bad taste in the mouths of those awestruck by the scope of the disaster and full of sympathy for the people of Lac-Mégantic and their loved ones.
Within hours, the top headlines had shifted from the victims and the community’s rebuilding — the true horror and the real tragedy — to a story manipulated by conjecture over the disaster’s cause and its eventual consequences (despite the lack of hard facts), one warped to suit the self-interest of others largely detached and unaffected by the story.
And that is a tragedy in and of itself.