Canada's online magazine: Politics, entertainment, technology, media, arts, books: backofthebook.ca

Politics, tech, media, culture and more, from a Canadian point-of-view

  • Politics
  • Media
  • Culture
  • Science and Tech
  • Living
  • Arts and Books
  • Features
  • The Video
You are here: Home / Politics / Because the Mounties said so

Because the Mounties said so

10/29/2014 by the editor Leave a Comment

Justin TrudeauBy Frank Moher

Does Justin Trudeau have a little meter in his pocket that tells him which way to tack on issues of the day? Does he pull it out and the needle tells him “Slightly Left” or “Slightly Right”?

Of course he does. It was passed down to him by the previous leader of the Liberal Party, who got it from the one before, etc. Political equivocation and opportunism, mixed to perfection, are the secret sauce of the Liberal Party, and may just return them to power next year, along with Mr. Trudeau’s hair. Thus when Thomas Mulcair said today that the shooting of a soldier outside Parliament last week was “criminal” but not “a terrorist act in the sense that we would understand it,” Mr. Trudeau glanced down at the meter cupped in the palm of his hand and replied, “The RCMP was clear, these were acts of terrorism, (so) these were acts of terrorism.”

Only the needle must have been pointing all the way to the right, because that’s the sort of response we’d expect from Stephen Harper or Peter MacKay or, you know, the County Clerk in Ward 6, Arkansas, than from the leader of the Liberal Party. “Whut the poh-leece sez is good enuff for me,” was the sub-text to Trudeau’s response. Oh, wait, no, that’s what he actually said.

But let’s look at what RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson said in a statement released on Sunday:

The RCMP’s investigation of the October 22, 2014, terrorist attack in Ottawa is advancing and has revealed a great deal about Zehaf-Bibeau’s movements and actions prior to the attack.

The RCMP has identified persuasive evidence that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s attack was driven by ideological and political motives. Zehaf-Bibeau had prepared a video recording of himself just prior to conducting this attack. The RCMP is conducting a detailed analysis of the video for evidence and intelligence. You must understand that we cannot release this video at this time and I would ask for your patience in this regard.”

In other words, we’d have to trust him for now. The Commissioner later told a Senate committee he hoped the video would be released “someday,” before adding to reporters outside, gnomically: “Our belief is that it has not gone anywhere else, but it may have gone elsewhere.” Whether he was referring to the video, the camera it was shot on, or certain politicians’ common sense was not immediately clear.

The Commissioner’s remarks are fine. We’ll wait. We’ll be patient. But in the meantime, could Mr. Trudeau refrain from acting like a child at the knee of his favourite teacher? Did he learn this deference to authority from his patrician father? Or does he just believe everything he’s told?

And even if it does turn out the RCMP really do have a video, and it really does show Zehaf-Bibeau saying “he will act in the name of Allah in response to Canada’s foreign policy,” as  an unnamed source told the Canadian Press, it no more makes him a terrorist than if he claimed he were acting on behalf of Spectral Beings from the Fifth Dimension. That’s what Mulcair’s getting at: that we typically use “terrorist” to mean someone attached to a network of like-minded ideologues with the means to help one another sow havoc. In the absence of any evidence linking Zehaf-Bibeau to such a network — and over a week later, there is none — what we have here is not a terrorist but the desperate, unstable drifter his mother says he was, probably as intent on committing suicide that day as he was on callously killing with a bullet to the back a soldier he didn’t know.

Perhaps other evidence will emerge. Perhaps it will harden us.  But meantime, let’s hope the RCMP don’t announce that “the terrorist” was actually working for Spectral Beings from the Fifth Dimension. Because then Mr. Trudeau would have to believe it.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: Canada, Canadian Parliament, Canadian politics, Commissioner Bob Poulson, crime, Justin Trudeau, Liberals, mental illness, NDP, Ottawa, Parliament Hill shootings, RCMP, terrorism, Thomas Mulcair

Subscribe to BoB by e-mail or RSS

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Google+
  • Living
  • Politics
  • Media
  • Culture
  • Arts and Books
  • Features
  • The Video
Fire sale sign

Fort McMurray: Shopping time!

By Brady Tighe We’re now officially in the aftermath phase of the northern Alberta wildfire crisis. The fire is long gone, and everyone with a home to return to is back in its … [Read More...]

Nathan Cullen

Electoral reform: Hashtag fresh thinking

By Alison@Creekside The most interesting and innovative idea to come out of the first meeting of the all-party Special Committee on Electoral Reform, or ERRE, was Nathan Cullen's suggestion, … [Read More...]

Trudeau on quantum computing

The Trudeau gush fest is getting old

By Jim Henshaw There have been several bewildered as well as angry accounts coming out of the USA lately about how little media time has been spent covering the Democratic Presidential Primary … [Read More...]

Rick Meyers in Nanaimo Pride Parade

My friend, Rick, at the Pride Parade

By Frank Moher On this dreadful day, I don't want to write about the shootings in Orlando. I want to write about my friend, Rick. Rick lives just outside of Nanaimo, a city of about 80,000, … [Read More...]

Stephen Colbert on Late Night set

Triumph of the drama nerds

By Frank Moher Two drama nerds have recently moved into high profile positions. Before I name them (or perhaps you’ve already guessed who they are; or perhaps you’d like to scroll down and look at … [Read More...]

From “Our Rape Blog”: Shooting the Moon

Originally published on Our Rape Blog, the author's account of the aftermath of a violent sexual assault. By Mary Fraughton Have you ever played Hearts? It’s a card game. For our purposes, … [Read More...]

First Nations defending Lelu Island

The video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”

From Creekside: The B.C. provincial government is trying to green light the construction of a massive LNG terminal on Lelu Island in the Skeena Estuary -- Pacific Northwest LNG, backed by Malaysian … [Read More...]

Google

Follow Us!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

RSS CBC News



Recent Posts

  • Fort McMurray: Shopping time!
  • From “Our Rape Blog”: Shooting the Moon
  • Electoral reform: Hashtag fresh thinking
  • The fish hotel
  • Hatred on an Alberta golf course
  • The video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”
  • My friend, Rick, at the Pride Parade
  • Our selective sympathy
  • The Water Bomber, The Frogman and The Great Canadian Novelist
  • Komagata Maru: The story behind the apology

Tags

9/11 Afghanistan Alberta bad behaviour books British Columbia business Canada Canadian military Canadian politics CBC celebrity computers Conservatives crime environment family film G20 Globe and Mail internet Jason Kenney journalism Justin Trudeau law Liberals Maclean's music National Post NDP newspapers oil sands online media Ontario Quebec RCMP religion sports Stephen Harper television theatre Toronto U.S. Vancouver women

Archives

The Video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”

Pages

  • About
  • Privacy

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in