Last week a
political science professor from the University of Calgary Tom Flanagan made a
comment with respect to child pornography that stirred up a hornet’s nest of
controversy. In a nutshell he said that
he had grave doubts about whether a viewer of child porn should be jailed. Here’s my thought, as a political activist
this man ought to have known better than to ever, in public, speak on such a
controversial topic without expecting major blowback. The fact is that he was speaking at a public
event, as a speaker no less, when he made the comments. If he wanted to throw doubt on how the
government is approaching their justice reforms it was a very poor example to
draw from because children are those that everyone will jump to defend and protect. This man is not politically naive so why
would he “misspeak”?
Any individual who is in the public eye
has the responsibility to be circumspect about the statements they make and if
they do go out on a limb to discuss theory then they have to expect whatever
uproar may follow. It’s one thing to
have such a discussion within a classroom where one may look at a topic in
various ways but it is quite another thing to stand on a platform in front of
an unprepared audience and throw out such a statement as an opinion.
Interestingly, an opinion poll on my radio
station only gave 2 options to vote on with respect to this “misspeak” – which goes
to show how circumspect they are in this controversy. Don’t touch the potato.
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