Thursday, December 04, 2008

On political violence

So let's get this straight: in the course of the last day:
- Con MP Dean Del Mastro has not only thrown around the word "traitor" repeatedly, but attempted to defend doing so even when called out on it; and
- at least some Con MPs have explicitly approved of vandalism against their political opponents.

And all this without a word of disagreement or concern from anybody else within the Cons.

Now, I've been suspicious for awhile as to the Cons' message that they'll do "anything legal" to cling to power, which based on their tendency for spin could easily be taken to allow for the encouragement of illegal acts by party supporters as long as the caucus itself stays in the grey area between merely hinting and outright inciting crime. (Of course, they've already incorporated seemingly criminal acts in their effort with a "let the courts decide" attitude.)

But we would seem now to have a perfect test case. If anybody who stated their agreement with the firebombing of Nathan Cullen's sign isn't booted out of the Cons' caucus immediately, then we can confirm that the Cons have no qualms about encouraging criminal activity from their own supporters. And that should only create all the more urgency in getting the Harper-created crisis dealt with immediately, rather than allowing it to fester.

(Edit: fixed wording.)

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