Tuesday, May 12, 2009 10:41 PM
'The system has worked'
Adam Radwanski
Speaking to reporters, Michael Ignatieff commemorated Ruby Tuesday as follows:
"It seems to me that what has happened shows that our system works. Allegations have been made about a Member of Parliament. The persons who made those allegations have come to Parliament, been allowed to testify. They've done so. The public will judge and then the question will then follow as to whether there needs to be any further action taken by either the federal or provincial governments."
Sorry, but there is absolutely no evidence whether or not the system has worked. The system will work when the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and/or the criminal justice system makes a (hopefully correct) decision whether or not to take action. That a show trial was conducted into a matter with absolutely no relevance to Parliament was, if anything, a distraction from the system working.
Nor, for that matter, is it up the public to judge whether further action needs to be taken. If 90 per cent of the public were against Dhalla, there might still be no legal grounds on which to pursue this; if 90 per cent were in her corner, there might still be good reason to follow up. The last I checked, serious allegations are resolved through due process - not through opinion polls, or how many calls MPs get in their constituency offices.
Yes, Ignatieff was trying to put a positive spin on an uncomfortable issue. And yes, he wants to convey that his party takes the allegations against Dhalla no less seriously than the others. But it's still troubling when someone whose leadership is being sold largely on the merits of his intellectual vigour gives so little thought to what he's saying, and what kind of precedent he's endorsing.
