JOHN CHUCKMAN

 

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY NORMAN SPECTOR IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

I have no use for separatism, but I think it more than fair to say that Mr. Duceppe is by a good measure the more statesmanlike of the three, comparing him with Harper and Ignatieff.

Duceppe also has demonstrated a solid concern for the kind of values most Canadians are comfortable with.

Harper is a nasty political accident, an extremist who has managed to enjoy power only owing to a set of circumstances beyond his control.

Ignatieff is not worth discussing. The man represents no values whatsoever. His voice is never even heard on important matters. And his past is a disgrace, whether speaking of his support for torture and mass murder or his receiving his position through anti-democratic manoeuvering. And to put the cap on it, he isn’t even interesting to listen to, rather drab in fact.

The press, and columnists like Norman Spector, actually make far more out of the separatist affiliation of Duceppe than is warranted. He has no chance ever of achieving separation, the majority of Quebec’s people not supporting that end. But he has been a more respectable and, in my view, responsible member of Parliament than Ignatieff or Harper.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

 

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY NORMAN SPECTOR IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

This is just a shabby hatchet job, Norman Spector.

All thinking Canadians know why Chretien agreed to send some troops to Afghanistan: they hardly require your efforts at twisting the facts.

Chretien was the last worthy Prime Minister we had and, from the looks of things in the national parties, the last we can expect for some while.

He kept us out of the mass murder of Iraq: a million dead, two million refugees, and an economy destroyed for a generation.

He had a fair and balanced view of the Middle East unlike our current Prime Minister, and he would never have done what shabby Harper did, questioning the UN observers in Lebanon during Israel’s ugly invasion, brave people doing their duty including a fine Canadian officer, all deliberately targeted by Israel.

Knowing something of your unbalanced views on the Middle East, you likely think the war crimes in Iraq were a worthwhile effort.

And your only public legacy, Norman Spector, is insulting a woman in public. This piece appears to originate from the same nasty little dark place.

Oh, and there’s a few laughably ridiculous statements about events in the Middle East to your credit.