Don Martin, National Post
December 6.2007
House of Ill Repute: Accusation No Joke
OTTAWA - In the
most graphic example to date of a Parliament experiencing relevance
deprivation, James Moore, the straitlaced Conservative MP with the
Forrest Gump haircut, was accused yesterday of viewing "scantily
clad" women on his laptop while sitting in the front row of the
government benches on Tuesday night.
Porn, yelped
one Liberal wit, belongs in the home, not in the House.
But it was no
joke to the accused MP or his tormentors yesterday afternoon.
An emotional
Mr. Moore, looking as though he was about to burst into tears,
defiantly and convincingly proclaimed his innocence and respect for
a parliamentary institution that most days, and this one in
particular, deserves only derision.
Consider the
exchange between reporters and the New Democrat MP who raised the
objection, invisible rookie Irene Mathyssen, and you'll be demanding
a refund for the $1-million per day in taxes it costs to keep the
Commons operating in the gutter.
Q Can you
describe the garments she was wearing?
A Well I, I
would describe it, I suppose, as soft porn, Playboy type stuff ...
it was a flimsy, a flimsy negligee kind of thing, very small, very
... it was lingerie ... scanty lingerie.
Q White or...?
A It was dark
in colour and she was a brunette.
Q A
brunette?
A A
brunette.
Thank you.
Last night The
Canadian Press reported NDP spokesman Ian Capstick as saying Ms.
Mathyssen had phoned Mr. Moore and he explained to her that the
photos she had seen on his laptop were of his girlfriend.
"Ms. Mathyssen
has accepted the explanation and offered her apology to Mr. Moore,"
Mr. Capstick said.
However, at the
root of this MP's objection is that Mr. Moore's viewing actions were
an affront to the Commons "as a place of dignity and respect."
Let me get this
straight. An MP looks over Mr. Moore's broad shoulder and glimpses
something -- she's not sure if it was a photo from Mr. Moore's
Hawaiian holiday, an ad for the upcoming Sports Illustrated swimsuit
edition or what -- yet whispers her outrage to another MP behind Mr.
Moore's back after the offending laptop has been closed. Then,
almost 24 hours later, she rises on a point of privilege to
blindside a fellow MP with incendiary allegations that he was
viewing in-appropriate material.
Nothing
prevented her from taking a closer look the night before and tapping
Mr. Moore on the shoulder to express a concern. Ms. Mathyssen, in
striving to preserve the "dignity" and "respect" of the elected
House, decided to simply unleash a drive-by smear in the name of
scoring cheap political points.
Of arguably
greater concern to women was how Ms. Mathyssen invoked her
indignation in the memory of the Montreal massacre's national day of
remembrance today. Such a trivial, malicious, petty and
impossible-to-substantiate accusation, which is just as difficult
for Mr. Moore to clear himself of, is of zero consequence or
connection to the deaths of 14 young, innocent women.
Women's issues
deserve to be taken seriously. The government has cause to be
questioned about programs and policies that disadvantage women, and
the Liberals are correct to identify this as a solid wedge issue for
the election.
Clearly Ms.
Mathyssen's slur was the New Democrats' response to the Liberal
"Pink Book" -- a selection of policies on women's issues released by
Liberal MP Belinda Stronach earlier in the day. It was their
desperate defence of women on the eve of a sad, reflective day for
all women.
But this
Parliament is crying out for an injection of maturity --in the level
of debate and the calibre of its occupants.
© National Post 2007
