Tory MP off deep end

Editorial

Along with others in the Jewish community, we have repeatedly condemned the flippant use of Nazi imagery in public discourse. The latest incident to gain national revulsion was part of a broadside by a Conservative member of Parliament against Bernard Shapiro, the embattled federal ethics commissioner.

Deepak Obhrai, a Calgary Conservative, lashed out at Shapiro recently, saying the ethics commissioner's investigation into whether Obhrai asked for tens of thousands of dollars to help his brother-in-law to gain Canadian citizenship led the brother-in-law to commit suicide last month – a tragedy Obhrai has laid squarely and publicly at the feet of Shapiro.

Obhrai, in a vile outburst, accused Shapiro of behaving like a Gestapo officer, adding that Shapiro is responsible for his family member's self-destruction and that Shapiro should call the widow and apologize.

When the Conservative party was in opposition, leader (now Prime Minister) Stephen Harper refused to meet with the ethics commissioner over a controversy involving another one of his MPs, Surrey Tory Gurmant Grewal. Rumors are rife in Ottawa that Shapiro's days are numbered in his present role. But if the Conservatives are trying to further discredit Shapiro, this gambit has backfired. The use of this imagery in what should be a civil public discussion reflects, if anything, Obhrai's own inappropriateness for office, not Shapiro's.

It is a sign of enormously lowered levels of appropriate conduct for an elected official to make an allegation as monumental and cataclysmic as this. Whatever emotional burdens a conflict investigation may have placed on Obhrai's relation, the assertion that a federal civil servant, acting in due process, should be held responsible for the man's death is incomprehensible and immoral.

But the use of the Gestapo imagery adds enormous insult to a despicable accusation. It degrades the historical experience of the victims of the Nazis, many of whom live in Canada and may be among Obhrai's own constituents. Obhrai, who was shipped around the country during the recent federal election campaign as a model of Conservative multiculturalism, might have been expected to serve in cabinet, had Harper not eliminated the portfolio of multiculturalism.

Obhrai's experience dealing with multicultural issues during his years in Parliament should have made him more sensitive to the impact his words can have - not only repugnant assertions of blame for a tragic suicide, but wildly inappropriate and hurtful comments about Nazism that have no place in this discussion.

This issue arose in a startlingly similar context recently, when the mayor of London made inappropriate Nazi-related remarks to a Jewish reporter. Innumerable similar disgusting remarks have been made lately, not coincidentally, perhaps, often against Jewish individuals. Marc Emery, British Columbia's renowned marijuana activist, said last year that then-justice minister Irwin Cotler should be more sensitive to oppression because of the Jewish people's experience in the Holocaust.

The use of Holocaust or Nazi imagery in public discussion is a nuanced and sensitive matter. While it is true that the lessons of the Holocaust can and should provide lessons and standards for human behavior, the issue, which too many fail to acknowledge, is that comparing every unwelcome development to Nazism or the Holocaust dilutes the seriousness and sanctity of this massive historical catastrophe.

Therefore, it is not Shapiro who should apologize, as Obhrai demands, but Obhrai himself. He should apologize to Shapiro for an unforgivable libel - something he has so far refused to do, claiming simply that he didn't realize Shapiro was Jewish and that his remark would cause offence. Obhrai should further apologize to Jewish and other victims of Nazi violence and oppression, whose historical experience he has debased. And he should apologize to Canadians for lowering the standards of civil discourse in this country's public life.

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