Wednesday 3 May 2017

It's time to dump Senator Don


It depends on which side of the partisan divide a person falls, left or right, as to whether Don Meredith, Canadian senator, ordained minister, and married father of two deserves to lose his job for having a two year affair with a teenage girl. At the time the affair started, the girl was 16 and Meredith was 48. In addition sexting and video fapping, he also had intercourse before and after she turned 18, after which he dumped her.

If you're on the right, it's probably okay. Convicted felon Conrad Black who is also an income tax deadbeat to the tune of millions writes in the National Post a line by line dissection of why an investigation to which was not privy was wrong and then throws abortion, pregnancy and marriage as reasons for why it's okay for a middle-aged, married, ordained, senator to sleep with a teenage girl, because teenage girls have the ability to experience all three. They can also experience ovarian, uterine, and cervical cancers, they can stunt a lifetime of future earnings by marrying and having kids too young.  Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's desirable.

Black didn't just defend Meredith once, but twice. Stow away your horny fantasies Black, you creepy old dude who lives and breathes your own bullshit. Just be grateful you weren't put in general population.

Also from the right, National Post columnist Christie Blatchford put forth what I can only summarize as a nostalgic and somewhat psychedelic trip through literary history to a time it was okay for middle-aged married men to screw women half their age because everyone kept fucking quiet about it.

I know women like you Blatchford. Women who would sell out a member of their own sex in a heartbeat to fit in with what they perceive as their conservative brethren. Blatchford, honey, it doesn't matter whether the blow jobs are literal or literary, if you're giving them to fit in, you don't.

On the left, pitchforks and torches. They feel a middle-aged married pastor and senator screwing a teenage girl is wrong. Can't imagine why. It's not like this person, this person, this person, or this person went to jail, house arrest or are headed that way for doing the same. Oh wait, no, that's exactly what happened. It's a violation of the criminal code for a person in a position of trust or authority, like a pastor, a teacher, and ideally, a political official, to have sex with a teenager.

Don Meredith claims it was a moral failing. Meredith can stick his morality up his wazoo, the only reason it wasn't a legal failing was because the teen didn't press charges.

Let's not forget Meredith showed he was a lying sack long before this. The "Honourable Doctor Don Meredith", a college drop out, cooked up some phoney diploma-mill degrees between his failed run for the Conservatives in 2008 (he placed last) and his appointment to the Canadian senate in 2010; back when the only qualifier for a Harper senate appointment was a failed run at a Conservative seat.

Meredith was also a high flyer during the senate expense scandal. He wasn't the worst, but business class between Toronto and Ottawa? There's a point where seat comfort can justify spending more. It's a heck of a lot longer than an hour.

Let's also not forget that he's such a self-righteous rage-hole to work for that an investigation was launched solely on observed volume of staff turnover.

Then there's the conflict of interest investigation of what appears to be using senate funds and influence to further personal business interests, but that has really fallen off the radar since his screwing a teenager story broke.

To tally it up, he had a two year extra-marital affair with a teenager, he created conditions at work that were so toxic he couldn't maintain staff, and he has, by what seems like obvious appearance, used his position as senator for personal gain. The cherry on this cake of douche-baggary is phoney master and doctoral degrees that he bought on the internet.

What confounds is that he still has defenders. Putting aside fake credentials, abuse of staff, adultery, and influence peddling, if you strip away his senator's hat and present him as a man of the cloth, he is an ordained minister after all, members of the clergy having sex with minors has not gone down well in recent history. It should never go down well. That he's a senator should make it untenable, no matter what side of the political spectrum you fall on.


Update: On March 25, 2023 I received a notice from Google Blogger stating that this post had been flagged for review. While I have no idea who would be trolling seven-year-old blog posts, thanks for the view whoever you are! Hopefully it's Meredith. Anyway, it's an excellent opportunity to update this post on Meredith's exploits since March 5, 2017. 

On May 9, 2017, Meredith resigned from the senate one week after a senate ethics committee recommended his expulsion from the Red Chamber.

On October 15, 2020 the Senate of Canada awarded damages and legal fees of $498,000 to nine former Meredith staffers for the harassment and sexual harassment they say they endured while working for Meredith. The abuse included "... humiliation, denigration, sudden attacks of yelling and screaming, telephone calls during the night to perform additional work, requirement of work during sick leave, threats, bullying, intimidation."

On October 22, 2022, Meredith was charged with three counts of sexual assault and one count of criminal harassment.

On November 29, 2022, a little over a month after Meredith was charged with sexual assault and criminal harassment, senators voted to strip Meredith of the title "honourable". 

To Blogger Review: I deleted one tiny joke I made that may have crossed a line. Aside from that, I have reviewed the Blogger community guidelines and I do not see any terms that I have violated. There is no prohibition on profanity, every statement made is fact-checked and sourced, and opinions expressed are directed towards public figures. This blog post does discuss grooming, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and workplace harassment, but as despicable acts perpetrated by a man in a position of authority who was defended by individuals in positions of authority. Acts that should be roundly condemned by everyone in the bluntest of terms. 

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