Even when reasonable people watch the same video, opposing points of view emerge.1 Case in point is the Canadian House of Commons fracas of May 18, 2016. Here is how I see it:
"Trudeau elbows MP" (Time 1:19 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teqCY8cZGxc
Several NDP MPs were game-playing in the aisle of the House. The Conservative Party Whip, Gordon Brown, appeared to be “it”—lamely trying to breach a barricade of intentional NDP bodies while a wide aisle of open sailing lay to his left. But then, can we really fault him? for how—in the name of politics?!?—can we expect a conservative, right-wing Whip to look to the left when left-wingers are blockading his right?So this is why I am doubting Thomas as well as the “truth about Ruth.” Thomas' bulk was a large portion of the blockade. Did he add a nudge to the fracas as one viewer believes?3 Did his political instincts immediately recognize opportunity? a golden chance to escalate the accidental injury / offence from the briefest of OWs to dumping a load of “violence against women”; and thereafter trusting in the media and the populous (via repetitive, edited clips) to run everything to its hypocritical end?
In any event, our (ex-schoolteacher) Prime Minister lost his patience and inappropriately intervened to part the intransigent waters for the lackadaisical Whip, so to speak. Thinking perhaps to establish order, our PM ended up being disorderly himself and inadvertently elbowed a hovering NDP team-player, Ms Ruth Brosseau, in the chest. She reacted in pain (a very brief OWW—watch the video), but seemed to immediately recover in order to proclaim her injury.
Some have alleged her injury was on par with an equivalent male injury, but should one not ask: If such were the case, would she not have been clutching her injury instead of immediately gesticulating about it?
And how enlightening it might be to hear the exchange with her leader Thomas Mulcair which has been edited out of almost all the media coverage, but can be partly seen (but not heard) in the above video. The look on her face and backward glance as she strode from the chamber seems more of a “catch me if you can.” She did not appear in shock or trauma, but to be escalating the play-out of the game.
The game, it seemed was to create disorder, tension, and delay2 and when matters escalated beyond NDP's wildest imagination, the knee-jerk déjà vu was to point all four fingers at someone else, while trumpeting shock and awful outrage.
I am doubting Thomas too, because his verbal explosion seemed intent on escalating what His Leadership had provoked through his “school of fish” blockade. (This does not excuse our PM, but neither does our PM's action exonerate Mr. Mulcair and his milling colleagues.)
I am doubting the truth about Ruth as well. Her videoed behavior; her jovial participation in the blockade; her statement: "I am a tough woman, I know how to stand up and deal with situations, [...] I was just shocked ... I was overwhelmed,"4 seems theatrically overblown to maximize damage, especially considering her past employments as an assistant manager of a campus pub and later as a Pier 21 bartender.5
If she means that this accidental encounter in the House was more shocking and overwhelming that any pub or bar encounter, then the truth about Ruth is more about gaming than honesty.
Perhaps we shall know the full truth if we ever get unedited access to audible audio and to all angles of the entire kerfuffle. In the meantime, let us pray that all parties can be as forthcoming and apologetic as our PM.
(And by the way, I didn't vote Liberal or NDP. I voted for what I thought might be the lesser of three evils, but then again, how does one really know in these days of theatrics and gaming.)
P.S. Though I have never seen “Game of Thrones,” it seems more and more that the world's politicians are all playing that game—where opposing sides are each seeking to ascend on the one and to flush on the other. Oh, déjà vu!
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1. ▪ "Justin Trudeau's elbowing incident leaves House in an uproar" at http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-conservative-whip-1.3588407
▪ "What the prime minister did was supremely dumb, but so is the reaction - Michael's essay" at http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/elbowgate-the-trump-effect-inattentional-deafness-gore-vidal-1.3589053/what-the-prime-minister-did-was-supremely-dumb-but-so-is-the-reaction-michael-s-essay-1.3589059
▪ "PM Trudeau grabs Conservative MP Gord Brown" (Time 3.22 min.) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oG1Dw0B6S8
▪ "Trudeau in heated exchange on floor of the House of Commons" (Time 5:16 min.) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg3f0Ae8V3o
2. "Elizabeth May calls Trudeau ‘elbowgate’ accidental, calls on parties to be ‘more mature’" (Time 3:02 min.) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84iG8jgZExM
3. "Trudeau Elbows NDP member after being Nudged by Tom Mulcair into Brosseau" (Time 4:34 min.) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb4u6Y957us
4. "Ruth Ellen Brosseau target of personal attacks since being elbowed by Trudeau" at http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/brosseau-trudeau-elbowing-attacks-1.3590066?cmp=rss&cid=news-digests-canada-and-world-morning
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Ellen_Brosseau
