Pot ... meet kettle

Justin Trudeau is 'deeply disappointed' with the Montreal Canadiens for their choice of pick Logan Mailloux in the first round of Friday's NHL draft. Mailloux as you might be aware, has been under fire for having distributed photos of a sexual encounter with a young woman without her consent.

Not to justify Mailloux's extremely poor judgement. He was wrong. 

But is Justin Trudeau really the man to be passing judgement? Justin Trudeau - who was a full grown adult the many times he wore blackface and danced around? Justin Trudeau - who was a full grown adult when he groped a female reporter without her consent?

We as a nation voted that a full grown adult could say he was *sorry* for those egregious acts and still be our Prime Minister - but a seventeen year old who made a lapse in judgement should not be allowed to move past it to become a hockey player?

 Please. Give me a break.

Defending the indefensible

In the wake of all the groping allegations and denials, the thing that strikes me most is how hard liberals are working to make it something other than what it is, or to suggest that because the accuser has stated she is not pursuing it, that the conversation is over.

I've been writing here since 2005 when the AdScam scandal was fresh. I've written about literally dozens of incidents and issues, and there are many, many that I took a pass on. Quite often, if I found my preferred party lacking or in the wrong, I didn't bother writing about it because I figured the other side would probably skewer them anyway, why add my voice to the chorus? But looking back, I think I can honestly say that I never tried to justify or rationalize bad behaviour in Conservatives simply because they were my preferred team.

If you look back in my archives, I've chastised the Conservative Party of Canada or the PC Party of Ontario when I believe they're not living up to their obligations to the voter or to citizens. I've defended the Liberal Party, even Justin Trudeau (someone I've always felt was pretty vapid) when I believed they were doing the right things.

You cannot live by the *my guy, right or wrong* mantra. You have to have principles. If your preferred party fails to live up to them, call them out or ... if you can't bring yourself to do that... at least don't try to justify.

Justin Trudeau's personal failure is he sees the world from an infantile point of view. Everything is about him... his socks, his gymnastics, his costumes -- always performing. And like all children, he likes to get his way and sees things in black and white terms. He calls for diversity, but in the Taste of the Danforth, Caribana, Pride, Caravan sort of way -- the colourful, tasty, performative  type of diversity. When it comes to thought diversity, he's pretty shallow --- even before he became Prime Minister he made it clear that his point of view on anything was the only one which would be tolerated within the party. He alone set the tone for gender parity and for activist feminism and now, when faced with the cold truth -- that he's human -- that he messed up -- he's ill-equipped to deal with it. Instead of doing the grown up thing and acknowledging his ill-manners, his rude apology and his over-zealous condemnation of men in similar situations, instead he has given us a group hug and claims to be the guru of our feminist awakening.

So immature -- but so expected of this man-child. The saddest part is the people who are letting him away with it. His female MPs are *proud* of his denials and condescension. It's hard to see people we admire or like do the wrong thing. It's harder still to call them out on it when they do. But in my opinion, it's better to stay silent than to become one of the sycophants or enablers.

What does this say to new Canadians, learning about our gender values? What does this say to our young men, learning to maneuver in the complicated world of flirting/dating/pairing in this generation of heightened sensitivities between the sexes?

I can't think of anything more detrimental to the cause of women's autonomy and equality, than having a self-proclaimed feminist shrugging and saying -- it's all in how you think about it, while a bunch of high profile women nod and applaud.

canadianna

New questions for Trudeau

Upon learning that the touch was in fact a hand on the woman's ass, we have to wonder:

Did he simply forget the incident, and therefore believe he did nothing wrong?

Is the woman lying or delusional and the incident never happened?

Or is putting a hand on a strange woman's ass sometimes appropriate?

His insistence that he is confident that he "did nothing wrong" says to me he remembers -- so which of the other two options is it? Is she lying, or is what he did okay?

I really hope someone asks him but I haven't even noticed the questions on Twitter where it's being chattered about more than in the MSM.

So entitled. So privileged. So ill-mannered and now maybe a liar too.

canadianna

 

Trudeau's shameful lack of respect

If you read the original editorial about the groping incident, the writer is as incensed with the apology as she was with the actual incident. The man apologized --- why did the woman still write the editorial? Why wasn't she over it? Because the apology disrespected her as much as the touch did.

And he's still doing it.

The fact that in apologizing, Trudeau felt the need to let her know that her status as a national reporter would have prevented his *alleged* lechery, is disrespectful to ALL woman, not just the woman he touched. Any woman should be able to live and work without having do deal with some lout's hand on her, and Mr. Trudeau's apology showed that he didn't get it. He still doesn't.

The incident itself has become secondary to Prime Minister Trudeau's dismissal of the woman's reaction. In his interview on CBC Morning, he's still saying *if* I apologized (because apparently he's still not sure sometimes) (questions about it start around 9:12). In an interview with CP24 he even says:

Who knows where her mind was?

Seriously Mr. Prime Minister? What is that meant to imply? What else could have been going on in her head except what she wrote in that editorial? That you have no manners.

First you disrespected her by touching her. Then you disrespected her with some back-handed apology, and now, eighteen years later, you disrespect her yet again, minimizing her experience by repeatedly denying it happened but giving her permission to see things differently from you. Your inability to even concede that you MIGHT have been inappropriate forced her out of privacy to defend her integrity in having brought this incident to light in the first place.

As a feminist, you should be ashamed of what you have put his woman through, when you could simply have said, I accept that I might have behaved in an inappropriate manner. But you are so smug, so arrogant, you cannot see your way to yielding even a bit. No grace. No class and certainly no regard for the feelings of the woman.

The Prime Minister's obtuse ramblings, and his attempts to school the rest of us are just unbelievable. I am not a 'believe the women' woman. I believe every situation deserves to be viewed on its own merit. The fact that Mr. Trudeau is a 'believe the women' advocate -- except now -- is telling.

In this particular case, even if nothing happened -- the Prime Minister's condescension is disrespectful attitude toward the woman, and toward ALL women in his *ifpology* and his disrespect of the men he unceremoniously tossed from their jobs for lesser alleged transgressions is galling.

To use a line from his own phrase book, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau is a sanctimonious *piece of shit*.

Two days ago I could have given him a pass if he'd managed to own up in any way. There is nothing he could say now that would make me think any differently.

And before anyone starts suggesting this is partisan, I've stayed pretty quiet lately and the couple of times I've mentioned Trudeau on this blog, I've defended him. This isn't about Liberal or Conservative because I hold no party affiliation --- this is entirely about a smug, entitled, privileged man who has never had to face the consequences of his stupidity.

Shame.

canadianna