Robinson's ring caper another dubious mark
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Fri, April 30, 2004
Robinson's ring caper another dubious mark
By HERMAN GOODDEN
The light-fingered self-outing two weeks ago of NDP wunderkind, Svend Robinson, was typically flamboyant.
Quite true to his usual form, the large-egoed MP decided not to just turn himself over to the police and be done with it. Instead, Robinson held a national news conference, the upshot of which led every newscast that evening and plastered his weeping face on every front page the next day, allowing all Canadians to wince along with the member of Parliament for Burnaby, B.C. and feel his pain.
Robinson never said he "stole" anything, exactly -- only that he "pocketed" a $50,000 ring from Federal Auction Services Inc.
This little caper -- so utterly unlike anything he'd ever done before, he said -- shocked Robinson to the very core of his being.
So far, only a few pro-life zealots have been so uncharitable as to recall another occasion when Robinson had a brush with the law, standing passively by during the assisted suicide of Lou Gehrig's disease sufferer Sue Rodriguez in February 1994. But then, that was a law Robinson and the liberal media didn't agree with anyway, so it's small surprise that hasn't been cited as the precedent for Robinson's troubled future.
Robinson hopes Canadians will interpret this latest sleight-of-hand in the larger, psychological sense as a desperate cry for help. Robinson certainly interpreted it that way and announced he would be heeding that cry forthwith by taking an immediate medical leave of undetermined duration from his parliamentary duties. That should send the right message to today's ethically confused youth. Do a bad thing, have a very public cry and get a paid holiday.
At his news conference, Robinson blubbered about the "extreme stress and emotional pain" he's enduring since a well-publicized hiking accident 6ae years ago. We all remember pictures of a gaunt-looking Robinson in his wheelchair, but he's appeared perfectly hearty since then.
After the press conference, details leaked out that quickly made Robinson's public confession look a little less forthright and honourable. The filching, we were told, had been electronically detected. The auction house had it all on videotape, which they'd passed over to the RCMP, who were about to come calling until Robinson hastily returned the ring and called his press conference.
Robinson's teary, public confession was starting to look more like a preemptive bid to come clean before the cops could grab him.
Next, and seeming to establish the important question of intent, a jewelry store owner reported he'd shown Robinson a whole range of rings just the week before his auction house incident. So perhaps this wasn't quite the irrational, out of the blue impulse Robinson characterized it as.
Of all the waffly and nuanced commentary this debacle has provoked, none matches that of Ben Mulroney, who wrote in this paper last week:
"The life of a member of Parliament -- especially an opposition MP -- is a thankless one . . . the stresses and strains on one's personal life are as bad as it gets. As a nation we should thank our lucky stars that parliamentarians do not snap and treat themselves to five-fingered discounts more often."
Gosh, Ben, could you set the bar for political leadership any lower?
While Robinson has been languishing in quasi-criminal limbo, on Wednesday the Liberal government and Liberal controlled Senate finally pushed through what will ultimately prove to be Robinson's most odious legacy of all. Bill C-250 is a repressive and unnecessary amendment to the already unnecessary Criminal Code section on hate speech. C-250 adds "sexual orientation" to the categories of colour, race, religion and ethnic origin as one more prohibited form of hate speech. Canada has now outlawed the free expression of laymen, journalists, clergy and doctors should they have anything discouraging to say about homosexuality
