April 6, 2008...10:30 pm
Toronto Star’s Allan Woods makes disgraceful attack on Harper at Auschwitz
First, the good: PM Stephen Harper shows once again that he is a class act, a statesman, and a leader beyond what we have come to expect as Canadians. While touring the Auchwitz Nazi Death Camp memorial in Poland yesterday, he remained silent and reverent, and refused to use the visit to the sacred site to make political points. He declined to talk to the tag-along press contingent about it, and left this beautiful, thoughtful message in the guest book at the memorial:
“We are witnesses to the vestiges of unspeakable cruelty, horror and death. Let us never forget these things and work always to prevent their repetition. Lord, bless the souls of those who suffered and perished here and deliver them from evil.”
Now, the bad. Here is a screen shot of The Toronto Star’s disgraceful attempt to use this visit to Auschwitz as an attack on Harper:
- The Star chooses an angry-looking Harper file photo from Parliament to set the tone for the story, rather than an image from the visit to Auschwitz. The photo used here is completely unrelated to the story, and could only have been chosen for the sole reason of connecting Harper’s supposed “mean” personality to his visit to Auschwitz.
- The story leads with: – “Prime Minister Stephen Harper uttered not a word of reflection to the Canadian public following his visit to Auschwitz yesterday.” Third sentence: “He didn’t speak after kneeling before a red-and-white wreath at the camp’s Death Wall memorial, where thousands of prisoners were executed, though he did appear to be moved.” Fourth sentence: “He didn’t speak after emerging from the claustrophobic gas chamber and crematorium, the lethal machine of Nazi terror. He left just one reflection of three sentences, written in blue ink in a leather-bound memorial book.” The implication: Harper was indifferent to the horrors of Nazi Germany. The reality: Woods & company are so utterly ideologically against Harper that they’ll use the PM’s completely appropriate and heartwarming response to the depravity of the Nazis, as an opportunity to repeat the long-discredited phony charge that Harper is cold, mean, and harbouring a “hidden agenda”.
Shame on you, Allan Woods and The Toronto Star. You spit on the graves of dead Jews by your obscene actions.
4 Comments
April 7, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Easy, guy, easy. You’ll blow a gasket; and nothing published by this rag is worth while working up a sweat over.
It’s no secret that this bird cage liner is nothing more than the mouthpiece of the Liberal party. They have been in a snit ever since Mr. Harper decided that, unlike his Liberal predecessor, policy would not be made by the Toronto Star in a scrum in the foyer of the House of Commons.
Every time Tonda McCharles appears on television she finds some way of turning the conversation into a jibe at the Conservatives policy for not allowing reporters free rein to poke into every member’s private conversations or to be privy to the minutes of cabinet meetings. Her pursed lips and body language, at the mere mention of the Prime Minister, are the true reflections of the philosophical bent of this scandal sheet.
April 7, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I agree with your sentiment, and I could surely find an anti-Harper outrage in The Star every single day to rail against. However, this writer must be singled out for callously using the graves of six million Jews to take his juvenile little swipe.
Crawl out of your swamp, Mr. Woods, and explain yourself.
April 8, 2008 at 10:09 am
The Star . . . house organ for the Liberal Party of Toronto.
April 8, 2008 at 8:43 pm
The Star is read by most Torontonians for the lifestyle section.
You know, latest condo news, housewares,etc.
The thing that bothers me the most about this publication is that you have 3/4 of the TTC ridership reading their views on the daily commute via their free Metro paper.
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