POLITICALLY INCORRECT

"Dizzy" Asper, Cub Reporter

David Asper, who bills himself as the chairman of the publications committee of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and a former criminal defence lawyer wrote a newspaper opinion piece entitled "To Chretien's accusers: Put up or shut up."

CanWest Global, controlled by the Aspers, recently purchased Southam Newspapers as well as a 50% interest in the National Post. The Aspers are true Grits, patriarch Izzy having once held the position of Manitoba Liberal Leader. David has raised freedom of the press to new heights by essentially writing that the newspapers his family owns, are really garbage because they dare to criticize St. Jean of Shawinigan.

There are really only two minor faults with the Asper piece. Firstly it was written and secondly it was published. Other than that, it was fine. In his article, Asper accuses the media of "parroting the single tune of a desparate-for-attention Joe Clark." Duh!! The media, led by the National Post, revealed the Shawinigan shenanigans long before Joe Clark began raising it in the election campaign and in Question Period. Perhaps the proposed super duper blue ribbon commission that the feds are going to have to look into, amongst other things, media concentration, will propose a law requiring persons to have read newspapers before allowing them to own them.

Asper goes on to state that "the attacks on the PM seriously violate any notion of civil rights regarding the role and the burden of the accuser." This hits the nail on the head and illustrates the type of Clintonian democracy that is practiced by Chretien. Morality, ethics, doing what is right or even the appearance of propriety does not matter--the only thing that counts is whether or not wrongdoing can be proved. What Asper seems to be suggesting is that public figures do not need to be accountable unless some civil or criminal burden of proof can be met. The way to govern is to deny and stonewall and hope that the blue dress never appears.

After re-iterating the criticism that has been raised over the fact that Chretien's Ethics Counsellor reports to him and not to Parliament, Asper goes on to say: "But, has anyone offered any evidence whatsoever that Mr. Wilson in fact acted improperly? Did he cheat some rule? Did he behave unethically himself? Is he under a demonstrable undue influence of the Prime Minister?" Perfectly understandable questions if they had been asked by Howard Wilson's mother, but coming from a former criminal defence lawyer seem a little strange. If criminal court judges lost their independence and had to report to the Department of Justice, "Dizzy" would probably be in a tizzy. It is the lack of independence of the ethics counsellor, not his personal characteristics that are repugnant to a democracy. Again, it really helps to read newspapers before criticizing them.

Asper then goes on to suggest that those who dare to criticize Chretien, who bills himself as just an ordinary MP, should themselves be subject to criminal charges. Asper notes "In Canadian law there is a crime known as public mischief which exists to deter and punish people from making false accusations of criminal conduct." In his column, Asper conveniently fails to define the offence. Public mischief occurs where a person causes a peace officer to enter on or continue an investigation. An essential ingredient of the offence is that there must be an intention to mislead. Where, pray tell, did anyone have the intention of misleading the RCMP? The facts that the police were asked to investigate were similar to ongoing investigations. There are a lot of unanswered questions and what is known to date does not pass the smell test. Asper seems to suggest that before you can go to the police, you must have positive proof of criminal wrongdoing. If this is correct, it would place a higher onus on people who go to the police, than the police themselves have in laying charges.

David Asper gets so excited at the prospect of attacking Chretien's critics that he salivates about "dusting off the old barrister robes and cross examining them." After showing the country what the chairman of the publications committee of CanWest Global does for a living, maybe he should start dusting.

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: aweinreb@interlog.com