Saturday, November 20, 2004

Gagliano, etc.
I was reading Kinsella's blog this morning and came across this blurb:


Gagliano: Okay, let's get this straight. A piece of human garbage
- a guy who has been found guilty of six murders, a junkie, an extortionist,
and a loanshark - makes an allegation about a former cabinet minister and
his words get loving, reverential front-page treatment. If the CBC had given
me a chance, here's what I would have said: this story stinks. It demeans
the media and the likes of Peter MacKay for treating it seriously. And it
displays, in its essence, anti-Italian BIGOTRY. I hope Gagliano sues the ass off
of everyone who joined this sickening pile-on.
Okay, that's fairplay, although I disagree entirely. Is it newsworthy that Gagliano was named in a trial? I think it would be newsworthy if it were any Minister was accused. I don't know how 'unfairly' this accusation has been treated, because I have not seen any editorials or comment pages that have gone off stating that Gagliano is guilty...

And since we are on the topic of 'credibility' of the individuals involved, we are talking about a minister under intense scrutiny for 'breaking every rule in the book' according to Sheila Fraser. If this were the first time the minister was accused of improper behaviour, no one would notice...But there is a pattern of ill-behaviour by this guy.

As for the 'race' element, let's get into it: is the reporting of the allegation against a minister simply 'bigotry' if he's Italian? That's debatable.

Just a reminder about gangsters: They are not specific to any one race. It does strike me as odd that this would be assumed when an Italian is involved. Gangsters have been and continue to be Jewish, Irish (The IRA still owns west Belfast, and see New York circa late 1800's), Black, Hispanic, French Canadian (Rock Machine), white (Hells Angels), Indo Canadian, Vietnamese, Chinese and Cuban. Hell, gangsters are virtually a UN of diversity. My previous quotes about Gagliano were by Cypress Hill (Black, Mexican, Puerto Rican, American) and Scarface (Cuban). The UN touts wold peace, while gansters embrace world vice.
Hands across the water
Hands across the sky
--Wings

PS: In the interest of fairplay, I have added a little disclaimer to my previous post about Gagliano, which was mostly just an attempt at humour...And I do feel badly that the Italian community feels that it is under attack in Montreal. Also, Harper probably should have kept this thing out of Parliament-for the moment, anyways.

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