Let’s start with the reliable…
Ralph Klein can always be relied upon to be a sanctimonious cretin. The other day, he opened his mouth about people abusing disability programs in Alberta, based on his scientific reasoning that the protesters following him and “yipping” at him didn’t look severely disabled to him.
That was classic Klein, and more than enough to fill his weekly quota of spouting off dumb-ass remarks. But, true to form, Ralph goes and makes it worse, as this CBC article lays out in loving detail:
At a campaign stop in Grande Prairie, a reporter tried to get Klein to clarify his earlier comments that two women “yipping” at him about their $850-a-month funding from the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped program didn’t look disabled.
He didn’t answer, but then addressed the issue in his speech.
“I know the CBC wants me to talk about AISH. I’m sure none of you want to talk to me about AISH, do you? No, because you’re normal,” Klein said. “Severely normal.”
I could make some witty comment about Ralph Klein and severely normal being in the same sentence, but it would be a waste of good wit. The fact that this boob has been Premier of Alberta for over a decade absolutely terrifies me. Has there ever been a man in Canada who has appealed to such a lowest common denominator of citizenry as Klein? The sooner he retires, the sooner Alberta politics can join us in the more sophisticated present day.
Moving on to ridiculous…
Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler has sent the Stephen Truscott case for review by the Ontario Court of Appeal. Most pundits…hell, most average people with a smattering of intelligence…believed he would have quashed the obviously false conviction Truscott has suffered under for over 40 years.
It was not to be.
Cotler said he could not order a new trial, as Truscott wanted, for two reasons:
The Crown might have chosen to argue the case in a sustained way, which would have drawn out the ordeal for the Truscott family even more.
Alternatively, the Crown might have decided to stay the murder charge because it could not count on reliable testimony from the original witnesses in the case. That course would not have given Truscott the satisfaction of being officially found not responsible for Harper’s death, Cotler said.
I don’t agree (obviously), and lawyer James Lockyer explains it best:
Lockyer dismissed that reasoning, saying a new trial would not take long given how slim the prosecution’s case would be.
In fact, he anticipated the Crown would decline to pursue the case, essentially exonerating Truscott without the effort of another court proceeding.
“Their case has essentially disappeared into thin air as a result of what we found in the archives,” he said. “That material demonstrates how the Crown’s case was built on sand.”
Truscott will get his exoneration…the crime now is that he will have to wait another 2 to 3 years for justice.
Ridiculous indeed.
