It has been a rough week for Canada's Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, albeit primarily due to his own words and actions. A rapid downward spiral followed his statement in the House of Commons that Canadians have one choice - support Bill C-30 allowing police access, without legal warrant or judicial review, to all their online activities OR to support child pornographers. It was an odious remark that offended millions of Canadians of both conservative and progressive bent and precipitated an online storm the like of which hasn't been seen before in Canada. It was a storm which could have been quelled if the minister had promptly apologized and withdrawn his inappropriate comments but, instead, Toews went to the wall the and net citizenry responded with an outpouring of rage and details of the minister's personal life which media had previously left unpublished.
By the weekend Toews was claiming his safety and security, as well as those of his family, had been threatened and that the RCMP has been asked to investigate. Genuine threats to the security and safety of any Canadian, cabinet ministers included, are inexcusable and we await the outcome of the police investigation. Meanwhile, Toews could help himself by getting a grip on his dosier (to borrow the beautiful French expression) and stop misleading his constituents.
Toews claimed in a weekend interview not to have known the extraordinary powers his proposed legislation would have given police. What kind of minister doesn't read his bills and doesn't fully comprehend their content before presenting them to Parliament? How can the prime minister excuse and tolerate such incompetence that brings his whole government into disrepute?
Toews attempted to fire back at his opposition with a misleading open letter to his Winnipeg constituents which opened with the claim that he has been under attack for weeks because of his proposed legislation. That would be legislation that had only been tabled February 14. The minister was wrong by a factor of seven. Continuing to attempt to solicit sympathy by telling his electors that he loves his wife and son "more than life itself" is a bit precious when read in context of the details of his adulterous behavior and divorce drawn form public records and published days earlier. Toews' commitment to the "family values" his party so exuberantly espouses appears equally sincere. Author of his own misfortune, the minister's credibility is nil.
NDP leadership candidate, Paul Dewar, has called on Minister Toews to resign. If the Minister of Public Safety doesn't know his file and can't separate truth from the fiction he would like to believe, it is time not for him to resign but for the prime minister to expel him from government.
