{"id":3911,"date":"2020-04-30T19:25:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T22:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=3911"},"modified":"2020-04-30T19:25:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T22:25:49","slug":"why-should-a-politician-apologize-for-having-an-opinion-regardless-of-that-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/04\/30\/why-should-a-politician-apologize-for-having-an-opinion-regardless-of-that-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Why should a politician apologize for having an opinion, regardless of that opinion?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/SloanOpinionFinal-1024x485.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3912\" width=\"475\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/SloanOpinionFinal-1024x485.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/SloanOpinionFinal-300x142.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/SloanOpinionFinal-768x364.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/SloanOpinionFinal.jpg 1049w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 475px) 85vw, 475px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>A federal politician, a conservative MP (official opposition), dared to express an opposition-related opinion. Now, his party under the weak leadership of Mr. Andrew Scheer is questioning his comments about Dr. Tam and asking him to apologize. He was even accused of being racist, a classical accusation in today\u2019s society. Bambi knows something about this accusation for having been labelled racist herself ?. Same for her spouse, ironically for having said that it would be good to treat everyone equally. What a racist couple ?!:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-news-1130\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"O5bVj7gv2F\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.citynews1130.com\/2020\/04\/29\/ontario-conservative-mps-pass-motion-demanding-sloan-apologize-for-attack-on-tam\/\">Ontario Conservative MPs pass motion demanding Sloan apologize for attack on Tam<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe title=\"&#8220;Ontario Conservative MPs pass motion demanding Sloan apologize for attack on Tam&#8221; &#8212; NEWS 1130\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" src=\"https:\/\/www.citynews1130.com\/2020\/04\/29\/ontario-conservative-mps-pass-motion-demanding-sloan-apologize-for-attack-on-tam\/embed\/#?secret=O5bVj7gv2F\" data-secret=\"O5bVj7gv2F\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In politics, as in in life, a citizen is supposed to\nhave a brain in order to use it. Yes, using one\u2019s brain to think, confront ideas\nwith others, make own mistakes, and to learn from the latter. Not use our\nbrains just to repeat clich\u00e9s of trendy opinions, without much thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On this blog, Bambi has constructively (at times maybe\nseverely) criticized politicians, in Canada, in Lebanon, in Qu\u00e9bec, in New Brunswick,\nin Sackville, etc. Specifically, she has allowed herself to write posts about\nthe work of Mr. Trudeau, Ms. Hajdu, Dr. Tam. Concerning Mr. Trudeau, she\nallowed herself to express unfavourable (she has much to say here) as well as favourable\ncomments (she has the decency to acknowledge\/applaud the good work). She has\nalso made jokes or sarcastic comments about Mr. Scheer more than a couple of\ntimes. As far as Lebanon is concerned, she has written several posts during the\nrevolt and more recently. She even reported on the excellent work of the new Lebanese\ngovernment concerning covid-19. One must know how to give to Cesar what belongs\nto Cesar, even when we are not fond of that Cesar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyhow, what we have witnessed today is hypocrisy within\nthe <em>Conservative Party of Canada<\/em>. As mentioned above, one of its MPs,\ncalled Mr. Derek Sloan, expressed concerns about Dr. Tam\u2019s work. He wondered if\nshe has been more loyal to the &nbsp;Chinese\nor to the World Health Organization (WHO)\u2019s interests; the latter being \u201chijacked\u201d\npartly by China, partly by countries that China tries to invest in, namely some\nAfrican countries, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, Mr. Sloan\u2019s party is asking him to apologize for having\nexpressed his opinion. He seems to refuse to do so. At least, thus far, he\nseems to have the guts not to do so\u2026 because frankly, why should he apologize?\nWe may agree with him or not. Why can\u2019t we leave it there? Why should we always\ncensor and\/or foster self-censorship? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without having ever heard of this Mr. Derek Sloan in her\nlife before, Bambi recalls having posted on this blog a thoughtful commentary\nby her friend Aline A. on Lebanon a few months ago (see below): In it, Aline A.\nliterally used similar words to those used by this politician:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201c\u2026 Add to this, how we as Lebanese, are\nsometimes like double agents, serving the interests of foreign countries more\nthan our own. Perhaps some were tempted by this or that reward from this or\nthat external force. They even changed their policies accordingly. <strong>This\npolitician works for Iran. The other for Saudi Arabia. Yet another for the\nUnited States. Some even work for this and that at the same time<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-bambi-039-s-afkar\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"4Wle67HJHK\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2019\/12\/06\/lebanon-cannot-govern-itself-could-placing-it-again-under-french-mandate-help-protect-it-reflections-by-ms-aline-a\/\">\u201cLebanon cannot govern itself: Could placing it again under French Mandate help protect it?\u201d (Reflections by Ms. Aline A.)<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe title=\"&#8220;\u201cLebanon cannot govern itself: Could placing it again under French Mandate help protect it?\u201d (Reflections by Ms. Aline A.)&#8221; &#8212; Bambi&#039;s Afkar\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" src=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2019\/12\/06\/lebanon-cannot-govern-itself-could-placing-it-again-under-french-mandate-help-protect-it-reflections-by-ms-aline-a\/embed\/#?secret=4Wle67HJHK\" data-secret=\"4Wle67HJHK\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Was Ms. Aline A. being \u201cracist\u201d against Lebanese\npoliticians? Of course, not ?.\nIt is called voicing an opinion or having critical thinking. Something we are\ndiscouraging in Canada nowadays. We may agree with Aline or not. We may tell her:\nThis is your opinion. We do not share it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Same for this Mr. Sloan. We can tell him, this is your\nopinion, period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past, politicians and some journalists labelled another federal politician, Mr. Maxime Bernier, \u201cracist\u201d because his opinion differed on a certain topic. He finally was not re-elected. The irony is that his new party includes people from all sorts of ethnolinguistic or religious backgrounds. Some citizens voted for him (Bambi was one of them), because they saw in him the hope of a change of this mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyhow, Bambi has news for those politicians who are asking this MP to\napologize: She is not OK with their request of asking the Liberals to fire Dr. Tam,\neven if she was the first to criticize Dr. Tam, Ms. Hajdu, and Mr. Trudeau\nhimself. She even joked that our PM should have not been re-elected in the\nfirst place ?. She is\nsaying so, even if he makes good decisions from time to time. Even if Dr. Tam\nis fired, our issues will not be solved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed, Canada, and the rest of the world, need to learn from this tragic\npandemic not to be commercially (perhaps even also ideologically for some of\nus?) too dependent on China. It is not normal that a large percentage of the\nworld\u2019s medication and hospital safety supplies (e.g., for surgeries, etc.) are\nmade in China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, regardless of China or Dr. Tam, the tragedy of our world is\nthat inspiring politicians are rare to find. We rather see mediocre public\nservants, both Mr. Scheer and Mr. Trudeau are part of them, with all due respect\nto both. Why can\u2019t people, politicians or not, stand up for their values, have independent\nopinions, refrain from accusing others of being traitors (or racists!), just for\nhaving a different opinion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal politician, a conservative MP (official opposition), dared to express an opposition-related opinion. Now, his party under the weak leadership of Mr. Andrew Scheer is questioning his comments about Dr. Tam and asking him [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3914,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions\/3914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}