Leave Stéphane alone!!!

The media pile-on against the alleged leader of the federal Liberals has been relentless, and Robert Fulford is feeling kind of bad for the guy:

In The Globe and Mail, demonstrating that Dion is a disaster for his party, Michael Valpy searched his imagination for flaws he could add to the already thick anti-Dion indictment. He came up with an accusation unique in the history of political writing: Dion suffers from inadequately aged skin! Valpy charged him with looking “untouched by life … A too-smooth face.”

Michael Adams, renowned pollster, went further, assuming the role of psychosexual social analyst. “This man has to be more masculine,” declared Adams. “He has to think about how to be more masculine.” Even for a pollster, that was insolent. Still, Adams tried to help. He suggested Dion be photographed doing something physical — and, if possible, tell jokes. As for the Globe’s Jeffrey Simpson, he delivered the kiss of death: Dion is “a well-meaning, intelligent man,” wrote Simpson, words indicating that the date of the execution is about to be announced. Simpson suggested that Dion should promise to raise the GST to the level originally established by the Mulroney government. He could thus frustrate potential
assassins by committing suicide.

But in the highly popular sport of Dion persecution, Chantal Hébert of the Toronto Star has established herself as unquestioned champion. Her critique may be less baroque than what Valpy came up with, less Freudian than the notion floated by Adams and less condescending than Simpson’s dismissal, but she’s more persistent than any of them. In January, she wrote that Dion would be the leader to watch this year and nobody can complain that she hasn’t watched him. She’s relentless. Dion is to her what militant Islam is to Mark Steyn.

[...]

All of this raises a humanitarian question. “Canadian values,” as the Toronto Star likes to put it, demand that we firmly oppose the use of torture. Given that principle, how can Canadian journalists permit the torment visited upon this one hapless citizen? We can’t. I’m preparing my brief to the torture committee of Amnesty International.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at April 19, 2008 12:58 PM