So lately, Ottawa has been pretty focused on the trial of Larry O'Brien, who was accused of influence-peddling but recently acquitted. Lisa MacLeod is a Conservative MPP from Ottawa who commutes to Queen's Park (the Toronto seat of the Ontario legislature) and who is married with a young daughter. The judge in the O'Brien case dismissed her (damning) testimony because being married was a "distraction."
Seriously? Here's what MPP MacLeod had to say about it:
On Monday, Ms. MacLeod, the Conservative MPP for Nepean-Carleton, called the judge's reference “pathetic” and “surreal.”
“I didn't know truth had a gender or a family,” she said.
The article also quotes her as saying that it's not necessarily the outcome of the case that bothers her, but rather that her statement to the police was disregarded because there can't possibly be enough room in her tiny lady brain for worrying about work AND family AND political corruption.
Ugh. The only good thing to come out of this article was a statement by Equal Voice, which is a great organization.
via The Globe and Mail
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Yeah, I saw that this morning. It's really amazing the number of quasi-legitimate sounding stand-in excuses that people can think of to disregard women without saying that it's because they have vaginas.
ReplyDeleteUPDATE: Christie Blatchford thinks the judge was right.
ReplyDeleteApparently, it was MacLeod herself who said she was too busy to remember things.
Christ, Blatchford. First of all, clearly MacLeod did not believe that what she was saying meant she was an unreliable witness, or she wouldn't be so outraged now. Second, the point is not really whether or not she is a reliable witness - the point is that if it were a man commuting back and forth from Nova Scotia with a dying father while in the middle of a political scandal, it would be a non-issue.
My mother appears in court on almost a weekly basis in places all around Ontario, sometimes as far away as Hudson Bay. My grandmother has fairly severe Parkinson's Disease. She's recently been promoted to a job with much more responsibility, and her workload increased from four days a week to four and a half or five. These are pretty big distractions, too. Does that mean she can't be relied on to give fair expert testimony at a murder trial? Jesus Fucking Christ. Her goddamn [i]coroner's office[/i] is mostly women.
Not to mention Dave's mom, whose job it is to appear in court also, and has been doing so in GODDAMN NUNAVUT. Talk about fucking commuting.