Public Defacement

Our town hasn’t been used to such exposure in a long time. The ElectroMotive plant closing of a few weeks ago gained significant attention, but even it paled in comparison to the Fleming Street riot that for a brief moment seemed to turn our community into some kind of scene from a G8 summit. Other than the appearance of a CTV news vehicle turned over, set ablaze, then eventually exploding, the physical damage was more or less contained.The same can’t be said of the trauma, not to mention embarrassment, the entire incident caused our civic leaders, educational institutions, citizens, and property owners. Thanks to social and traditional media, the entire drama unfolded in real-time, providing Londoners with a developing image gallery of vandalism that shook them to their core.There was everything public regarding the riot – a community college, police, fire, subdivisions. Citizens invest in public institutions because in many senses we are what we build. The sight of such things undergoing defacement has the effect of also defiling the public conscience and citizens rightfully speak out against such injustices.One of the most important institutions of this land is politics – public parliaments, public servants, public politicians, public policy. Yet no sooner has the London riot died down than there was the face of Liberal leader Bob Rae plastered on our television screens, being riddled with innuendo, not by some ad agency, but by the Government of Canada itself.Take your own political opinions out of the equation for a moment. This was one party elected by the public defacing the leader, and elected parliamentarian, of another party. Some will say that this is what politics has always done, but that is, in fact, a misnomer. It is what the Harper government has always done. During elections, all parties have succumbed to this temptation to one degree or another – at times to the detriment of the political order. But historically the practice ended when the election concluded. Not anymore. Beginning in 2008, the Conservatives have taken to the practice of defacing opposition leaders in that space between elections. In this case, they have unleashed their latest fusillade a full three years before the next federal election.This post really isn’t about the poor choices of the government of the day, but about us as citizens. Sure we cast aspersions in the direction of Ottawa as a dysfunctional and petty place, and we would be right. But Parliament is our house, and the public therein elected the politicians. We might have our opinions, but when we grow to accept the defacement of public servants on primetime television long before election day, it is merely a reflection of a prime minister who knows well enough that, as citizens, we have lost our sense of decency to a greater degree than in times previous.I would again ask that you put your political persuasions aside briefly and look at Bob Rae in a different light. His father was an esteemed diplomat. Rae himself became a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford University. He assisted six aboriginal bands in northern Ontario to gain a reserve status that had been spurned for decades. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2000, in part because of his distinguished service as the Chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University, helped to oversee the Red Cross tainted blood investigation, and the effective resolution of the Burnt Church fishing dispute in New Brunswick. Appointed as chair of the Forum of Federations in 2002, he helped to oversee constitutional discussions between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tiger Rebels. In 2005, he was appointed to head a team to determine whether a government inquiry was required for the 1985 Air India disaster – something he eventually concluded was the most judicious way forward.There’s more, much more, including his respected status as a distinguished human rights advocate abroad and as a firm supporter of the arts at home. In a very real sense he became a public servant of distinction in ways the present prime minister could never accomplish because he earned such honours through dedicated work for the public at home and abroad.Politics aside, this is an honourable man’s public career that has been defaced by a government leader who would rather his henchman seek to reduce Rae’s accomplishments rather than face him head-on in debate. When we reach a point where the defilement of distinguished service gets eclipsed by an angry response to a media vehicle exploding, we have to clearly consider where we’re headed. Why would we not expect from our Prime Minister the respectful conduct we would have hoped from the youth on Fleming Street? And why wouldn’t we be enraged at the defacement of a distinguished Canadian the way we were by the London riot?Edmund Burke, regarded as the father of modern conservatism, once said, “Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of a polished society.” Bob Rae is a noble man, with decades of public service behind him. For a Conservative PM do degrade him in such a fashion shows just how far modern Conservatism has fallen and how citizens have learned to tolerate that decline.