Posted by Ezra Levant on 4/19/2004, 10:53 pm Don't cry for Svend By Ezra Levant -- Calgary Sun I thought it was biologically impossible for Svend Robinson, the MP for Burnaby-Douglas, to feel embarrassed. This is, after all, the man who dines with dictators like Fidel Castro, who champions terrorist Yasser Arafat, and who abets in the euthanasia of Sue Rodriguez. Surely, stealing a ring -- even one worth many thousands of dollars -- is not as shameful as those other public acts of disgrace. And that's not even mentioning Robinson's endless campaign to drive Christians from the public square. But if you listened carefully to Robinson's melodramatic press conference, it wasn't the theft of the ring that embarrassed him. It was his loss of self-righteousness. It wasn't stealing property -- as a socialist, that has never been a particularly taboo act. Castro and Arafat are famous for it. But they did so in the name of a revolution. What did Robinson steal his ring for -- a cheap thrill? Personal profit? It is all so tawdry -- the opposite of the shrill denouncer. And notice Robinson's artful wording of his non-resignation resignation. He has stepped aside temporarily -- he'll be back if the crown prosecutors don't file charges against him. It was not the crime that embarrasses him, but the public loss of face. Worse still is his awful, bizarre, utterly socialist excuse -- that his theft was not a moral failing, was not a window into his true character, but rather that it was an illness, requiring him to go on medical leave, no less, while collecting his full MP's salary. Perhaps we ought to wear a lapel-ribbon -- encrusted with jewels -- in solidarity with him and all other sufferers of kleptomania. Or is that too harsh? Well, nothing is too harsh for Robinson to use when he's on the attack. Or even when he's not -- if a harshness suits his cause of the day. He once announced that Scott Brison, a fellow gay MP who was not yet out of the closet -- was co-sponsoring a pro-gay piece of legislation. Brison did no such thing, and was forced to deny it to the press -- but it was Robinson's way of forcing Brison to join him on the front lines of public gay radicalism, rather than Brison's own choice of keeping his private life private. In effect, Robinson abused the power of the state to interfere with a gay man's private life, for political effect -- precisely the kind of thing Robinson claims to despise. But you know what they say about the means and the ends and the details. The only more despicable part of this story is the media's total obeisance to him. The Globe and Mail pronounced Robinson's lame excusology and teary half-resignation was "honourable," that his integrity was beyond reproach and that Robinson's career ought not to end. But don't pick on the Globe -- it was wall-to-wall apologetics for Robinson in the media, from the CBC to the Toronto Star. You can imagine what they would have said about a criminal who did not share their left-wing politics. No need to imagine, actually -- recall their contemptuous glee upon discovering Reform MP Jack Ramsay's criminal charges, or upon learning of George W. Bush's 20-year-old drunk driving charge. This should be Robinson's well-deserved disgraceful end. But he has merely hit the basement and begun to dig.
Mon, April 19, 2004
Melodramatic MP uses kleptomania to win sympathy
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