Liberal MP Anthony Housefather is taking full advantage of the sympathy and publicity generated by a campaign poster that was defaced with a failed version of the Nazi swastika.
The incident says more to the intelligence author of the graffiti vandalizer who is either dyslexic or otherwise unable to correctly draw the hated symbol which today has morphed from a symbol of a bygone Nazi regime to an antisemitic symbol,
We all condemn the hateful graffiti, there isn't a politician in Canada who would offer a free speech defence.
But that being said I cannot help but that Mr. Housefather's condemnation is hollow, a case of "do as I say, not as I do."
Mr. Housefather's dirty little secret is that he was a campaign poster vandalizer himself back as a youth and that in his last campaign, his own volunteer was caught removing opposition campaign signs.
"A volunteer helping out with the re-election campaign of Quebec Liberal Anthony Housefather was caught disposing of Conservative literature out on the campaign trail.
The incident was witnessed by a Conservative volunteer who happened to be canvassing the same apartment building in Côte Saint-Luc, Que., on Sept. 25.
Documents shared with CBC News show that the witness claims Housefather was campaigning with several volunteers at the time of the incident.
But worse than that, Housefather's own past behaviour makes his condemnation look like the pot calling the kettle back.
Here is the story as I've been reliably told and have verified as likely true
"Did you know that, in a strange but very possible way, the only reason Anthony Housefather is an MP today is because of the kindness of one {redacted} (yes, THAT {redacted}; we used to be best friends)? Let me explain.{redacted} and I worked on the "No" side in the 1992 Charlottetown Referendum campaign. We were putting up posters around NDG/Cote St. Luc for several hours and an MUCTC bus driver came along in his bus, saw us, and informed us that he saw a young male taking down our posters. He said that if we liked, he would act as a witness to identify the young man if we wanted to press charges. Well, you guessed it: that young man -- whom we then searched out and came upon -- was none other than one Anthony Housefather, then attending undergraduate McGill. We not only confronted him but saw him engaged in the dastardly deed as well. I then discussed with {redacted} whether he wanted to press charges (I, like the bus driver, was willing to) and he declined. I daresay that if {redacted} wanted to proceed with the charges, it is very possible that (1) Housefather would have been convicted; and (2) because of the conviction, he wouldn't have been accepted into McGill Law School; and (3) he never would have become mayor or MP. So in a very weird way, Housefather may have {redacted} to thank for his political career."
Next time Housefather complains about defaced posters, I dare any reporter to ask him to react to the above story.
Although this incident happened years ago, it is Housefather's claim of victimization by the latest poster defacement that opens him up to a discussion of his same prior bad acts.
I wonder if anyone has the guts to put the question to him......
It seems the emphasis regarding all this is the dyslexic who desecrates election signs with swasticas. That Horsefeathers is uprooting literature and signs of opponents seems to be the secondary issue. I did what I could by linking this editorial to a couple of contacts I have in CSL, but let's face it: In CSL, TMR and Westmount, they can run an epileptic earthworm as a Liberal candidate and the worm will still win.
ReplyDelete