A Magnificent Day in Parliament with a Charlie Brown Moment Page 1 of 4
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
globeandmail.com: A magnificent day in Parliament with a Charlie Brown moment Page 1 of 4 A magnificent day in Parliament with a Charlie Brown moment CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD FROM SATURDAY'S GLOBE AND MAIL JUNE 13, 2008 AT 8:33 PM EDT Random thoughts on random events in the news this week: On the aboriginal apology: Watching the tube on Wednesday night, I thought Prime Minister Stephen Harper was magnificent, winning what was an evident struggle to keep his composure, because, I suspect, he knew that on this particular day, tears weren't for government leaders, or anyone in government, to shed. I admired NDP Leader Jack Layton, whom I believe to be a real softie, for managing to keep a stiffish upper lip (stiffish being always an acceptable result for New Democrats) for what I suspect is the same reason. I liked Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's declaration of responsibility for the natural governing party, which was in office for so many of the residential school years. I thought the speech from Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine, wearing what was the most spectacular headdress I've ever seen, was terrific. But what kept sneaking into my head was the old Peanuts comic strip and the long-running gag that had Lucy perpetually offering to hold the football so Charlie Brown could kick it – and then lifting the ball at the last second just as he moved in for the boot so that he fell flat on his keister. Every time, despite his gnawing fear that she was playing him again, Charlie Brown decided to trust the evil Lucy, and every time, she'd move the damn football and make him look the fool. Even her litany of excuses and lures sounded oddly fitting in the native-government context: “A woman's handshake is not legally binding”; “Peculiar thing about this document … it was never notarized”; “I'm a changed person; isn't this a face you can trust?”; “I give you my bonded word”; “Think how the years go by, Charlie Brown … think of the regrets you'll have if you never risk anything”; and, “People change, times change; you can feel it in the air.” The vast majority of responses to the apology from native people that I've seen or read have been remarkable for their grace and optimism. It is pretty clear that Canada's first peoples manage still to trust. While there certainly will be disagreements and quarrels (and probably blockades and protests, too) with governments federal and provincial in the days and years to come, I hope that the spirit underlying all future government conduct will be honourable. I hope, for instance, that in land claims and other negotiations, government lawyers will be directed not to stall, obfuscate and appeal, as they have often done in the past with what seems to have been a goal of outlasting the other side, but rather to get on with it. In short, I guess, I hope that native people are not doomed to eternal disappointment, like Charlie Brown. On Julie Couillard: When news of Ms. Couillard's second Tory boyfriend, Public Works adviser Bernard Coté, emerged this week – he resigned, condemned, as it appears are most of Ms. Couillard's partners, to an unfortunate end – I sent a note to a male friend. mhtml:file://J:\MediaClips\MediaClips_2008\MediaClips\globeandmail_com A magnific... 28/04/2010 globeandmail.com: A magnificent day in Parliament with a Charlie Brown moment Page 2 of 4 “What?” I asked. “There's only the one woman in Ottawa, so they all have to sleep with her?” His very funny reply, delivered by phone due to him being what a mutual pal correctly describes as a “Presbyterian squire” too mannerly to use such a line in a note: “You could move there.” But honest to Pete, guys. Don't women outnumber men by a thousand to one in that town? Can you not find another dame or two to, ah, date? On the newly released police interview with serial killer-rapist Paul Bernard o: It was almost 13 years ago that Mr. Bernardo walked into the witness box to testify in his own defence at his murder trial. I loathe it when writers quote themselves, as if to demonstrate their prescience or wisdom. I do it here because nothing has changed. I had to ask Rick Cash, one of The Globe's stellar editorial researchers, to check whether Mr. Bernardo had even testified; although I covered every second of that trial, I wasn't sure any longer. But he had, and as he was then in the box so is he still. What I wrote that day, for the Toronto Sun, was in part this: “He was like a campaigning politician or an evangelist looking for money, all big, expansive gestures and carefully struck poses. … He threw his long arms wide open and, looking directly at the jurors, said, “People, I know I've done some really terrible things. I know that …” and “But mostly, Bernardo was … well, out there. I suspect this is because he is out there.” In the 2007 video, when he was asked whether he killed Elizabeth Bain as part of the case involving her once-convicted, now-acquitted boyfriend Robert Baltovich, there were the same big physical gestures, the same obsessions, the same white grin, and most tellingly, the same ability to speak of his victims as though they were not human and to utterly revise history. Ostensibly trying to pin down his movements on the day Ms. Bain disappeared, the detective questioning him, who had the unnerving habit of pronouncing Baltovich as BalKOvich, was using the dates of some Mr. Bernardo's known and admitted sexual assaults as the notorious Scarborough rapist. “When was the sexual assault, the one with the composite?” Mr. Bernardo asked. Was that because he had so many victims he can't differentiate among them? Nah, it was because they didn't matter. “I made some mistakes 17 years ago,” he said at one point, which is an interesting way of describing two abductions, two murders, one accidental death that occurred during a sexual assault (his former wife Karla Homolka's little sister, Tammy) and countless rapes. “That's okay. Fine, I did, but now we're talking about today and you're not going to roll forward that I'm some psychopathic liar sitting in jail claiming other people's responsibility for other crimes.” He spent the first third of the interview nattering on about the cruel wrongs done to him, particularly an alleged characterization of him as a liar by Peel Regional Police. “It's written on my file here that I lied to the police. … Big problem,” he said. “It's written on my file. Oh, he's crazy. You guys love doing that. I mean I'm just a crazy psychopathic liar. … Peel Regional says that Paul Bernardo lied to police about crimes that he didn't commit that he said he did. “I mean, this stuff is awfu l,” he said. “I mean, come on.” mhtml:file://J:\MediaClips\MediaClips_2008\MediaClips\globeandmail_com A magnific... 28/04/2010 globeandmail.com: A magnificent day in Parliament with a Charlie Brown moment Page 3 of 4 Dear Mr. Bernardo: What really matters on your file, and what is awful, are the homicides, abductions and rapes – you know, the mistakes. The lies count hardly at all. Well, they ought to matter at the National Parole Board, lest you ever even consider applying for release. Note to NPB: He's still out there, and that means he's best kept in there. Recommend this article? 43 votes View the most recommended Real Estate New owners discover a few naughty secrets Autos Cato on fuel prices affecting car purchases June 2008 Issue mhtml:file://J:\MediaClips\MediaClips_2008\MediaClips\globeandmail_com A magnific... 28/04/2010 globeandmail.com: A magnificent day in Parliament with a Charlie Brown moment Page 4 of 4 The fastest little bike company in the world Travel Catching some northern rays Technology Your Friday reads: best of the week © Copyright 2008 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. globeandmail.com and The Globe and Mail are divisions of CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc., 444 Front St. W., Toronto, ON Canada M5V 2S9 Phillip Crawley, Publisher mhtml:file://J:\MediaClips\MediaClips_2008\MediaClips\globeandmail_com A magnific... 28/04/2010.