Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Kady O'Malley and flawed logic.

You may already be familiar with the story of Michelle Simson, Liberal MP for Scarborough Southwest, having to apologize for a Twitter she made yesterday regarding Dean Del Mastro. Simson apologized to Mr. Del Mastro before the House, and even though the apology may have been half hearted, it was done and the story should have ended there.

But it didn't.

The CBC's Kady O'Malley wrote a little piece suggesting that perhaps Del Mastro may not be deserving of an apology because of something that he had said in Committee earlier in the day.

Here is some of what O'Malley wrote:

"Okay, so I have to admit that I was momentarily struck speechless when Dean del Mastro got up in the House after Question Period to demand an apology from Liberal MP Michelle Simson over "an entry she posted on twitter" -- a tweet, in other words -- in which, he sorrowfully informed the speaker, she had made hurtful remarks about his weight that, as far as he was concerned, went beyond the bounds of decent parliamentary conduct. With the air of a grievously wounded martyr, del Mastro read the text of the tweet from his BlackBerry, accusing Simson of "discrimination" -- not just against him, but every Canadian whose body shape falls outside the approved Liberal standard, and even suggested that it was this kind of elitism that will keep the party from ever returning to its previous strength." It was a masterful performance, really -- del Masterful, even -- given the fact that it was coming from a member who, just a few hours earlier, had repeatedly refused to withdraw the potentially unparliamentary comments that he made at the very committee meeting to which Simson's tweeting referred; a meeting that, as luck would have it, I was able to witness firsthand, what with liveblogging it and all.

A few points.

It is not up to Kady to judge what is and what is not ''unparliamentary" behavior. That is for the Speaker to decide.

Comparing Del Mastro to "a grievously wounded martyr" does not help your case. Come on Kady, you are better than that.

It is not wise or classy to make fun of the persons name (del Masterful, even) in a story calling out the bad behavior of others.

It is not a good idea to enter into some kind of bizarre relativism exercise in an attempt to equate 2 totally separate statements as if somehow one could possibly cancel out the other, and more so when O'Malley uses the following bit of very flawed logic for the basis of her argument:

"Szabo points out that actually, no Liberal members (or does he mean Members?) were charged with, or convicted of a crime, and invites del Mastro to withdraw; he refuses to do so, repeating, somewhat sulkily, that *he* thinks it was a crime. Does del Mastro understand the meaning of the word "crime"? Because it does technically involve charges, and courts, and convictions."

Really. A crime does not become a crime unless you are caught and charged. Wow! This of course is total bunk and unless you are a attorney for the Province of Ontario in Caledonia would anyone think that a crime is not a crime unless arrests and charges are made.

I think perhaps Kady may have accidentally stumbled upon the main plank of the Liberals election platform.

Fire the police and we can reduce Canada's crime rate to zero!

Do I really need to go on?



FYI you can hear Del Mastro's words here if you are interested. ( he starts at approx 34:25, the crime comment comes at approx 38:30)

Del Mastro was referring of course to Adscam and the FACT that some of the STOLEN money somehow made its way into the hands of some Liberal riding associations in Quebec. There were arrests, there were charges, and there were convictions with Adscam and although I am not a lawyer, the use of stolen money for anything sure appears to be a crime to me as well.


Did Del Mastro cross the line of proper behavior in Committee? I do not know if he did but whether he did or did not should have no bearing at all in justifying the classless Tweet from Michelle Simson, and Kady should know better than to even attempt to do so.

10 comments:

CanadianSense said...

No problem to moderation to reduce a few bad apples from posting or derailing the topic.

The post of Kady attempts a defence of an action by the member of the Liberal Party.

The Point of Order raised is used by all political parties for political advantage when someone makes a mistake.

The Liberal MP made a mistake and apologized for it, and Del Mastro knew his Point of Order would rightfully embarass the Liberals.

The Liberals have been telling us the CPC are mean and uncaring for years and Michelle was caught.

This won't stop, MP's will continue to make offensive remarks, tasteless jokes and it will be aired by the media.

Again I thank our wonderful media who feel it is important report on name calling between adults as "news".

wilson said...

Gomery called the Liberal Adscam an elaborate kick-back scheme.
Martin acknowledged this by returning $1.14 Million to Canadians,
that is an admission.

Gomery's mandate was only an inquiry,
the RCMP investigation is still on going.

wilson said...

This is not the first time Simson stepped into it with her thoughtless tweets,
Lib MPs were told, via tweet, to shut up:

''Word has gone out to #lpc mps; don't touch the Jaffer arrest. #cdnpoli http://myloc.me/Fwp9''

http://stevejanke.com/archives/292468.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+steve-janke+(Steve+Janke:+Angry+in+the+Great+White+North)

Anonymous said...

I once had a run-in with a idiot/yahoo that spewed a rude comment at me in public.
I responded calmly which made them look even more like a idiot.

The real irony and lost lesson in this was that the person came to me later on and Apologized for getting me upset.
Upset?????, I had the guts to stand-up for myself when insulted by a moron and THEY think I was the one with the problem of being hurt or shamed in public???
Since I had no more energy or time to debate a fool, I ended the talk by stating that "I will never stop defended myself when insulted,and don't waste my time with a hollow apology to shift the blame to me ".
This yahoo reminded me of a meeting I was at where about 80% of the people were Teachers full of themselves like Nabobs or Magi's,one of them got angry when I questioned their "savior" mind set after they spoke about hugging a teen age stranger as if they needed a hug because they were crying, they asserted that "You don't Teach students for over 20 years and not learn how to spot problems in people".
Oh , BTW....this was the same female Teacher that I watched marry a divorced male Teacher that just had a Heart Attack that drew her to him at the Hospital for a Spiritual hug and then marriage.
She's now dating a new man because her ex-husband was a verbally abusive drunk that the police had to remove from her home when he got physically abusive,and now her new "Project" looks like a carbon copy of the last loser that was really looking for a replacement to his mommy.

If being in a classroom for 20 years makes her a genius and a psychic about students, then living in a garage for 20 years will make me a car.

Anonymous said...

So who was it that did not "understand the meaning of the word "crime"?"

Ardvark said...

I like Kady, but I think trying to lessen the impact of the Twitter in question, or Del Mastro's comment on it in the House, by using flowery language and comparing it to another comment from Del Mastro was absurd and beneath her.

Ardvark said...

Powell, I know where you are going with that, in fact my original title for this post was along those lines, but I deleted comments picking on Del Mastro so this one has to go as well.

Anonymous said...

I am sure that Kady would be offended if someone pointed out the truth about her offensive body odour (I am not kidding, I sat behind her once and it was really gross). Unfortunately, this juvenile approach she takes says more about her than any topic she whines about.

The real story is that MP Dean Del Maestro has struck a real tender spot in the weak underbelly of the Grits. They fear exposure as there are Quebec MPs today sitting in the House who financially benefited from Adscam. And who can forget 55555 Inc.

maryT said...

Sometimes an apology can be worse than the so called offense. We had a sp ed teacher working with our g/son. She had done a few things that I disapproved of and when his whole team was present to prepare for the next year, I said I did not want her dealing with g/son in any manner way shape or form. She cried and left the room. I was called in to meet with the principal and head of the school division and they said I must apologize,in writing, to all that were present, or there could be problems next year. I shocked them and said ok, I will. That surprised them and they asked, and what will you say. I said, I will write and say, I am sorry that said teacher is stupid and unqualified. The principal said, you would, wouldn't you. Case closed, no letter, and she was not allowed near him or his brother
the following year. She never got tenure either, and left the system.

Anonymous said...

Kady O'Malley is a hack and not a journalist. Your expectation that "she is better than that" is wrong. She is not better than that. She is not really a journalist, and her hiring by CBC only confirms that Canada's broadcaster has lowered the priority it attributes to political reporting...