Rose's Cantina

In an interview with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge broadcast Tuesday afternoon, outgoing Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson said men are “biologically wired” for such behaviour. A report this spring found that women in uniform endure hostile work environments due to an “underlying sexualize culture” that leads to sexual harassment and sexual assault. The 88-page report by former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps , written after hundreds of interviews with active members, found that “there is a broadly held perception in the lower ranks that those in the chain of command either condone inappropriate sexual conduct, or are willing to turn a blind-eye to such incidents.”-- The National Post Well, isn't that special! The commanding officer of Canada's military -- outgoing, thank God! -- has just revealed the underying root cause of the biggest crisis to hit the armed forces in decades. Not enough bullets? Needing bigger airplanes? A lack of nutritious rations based on ...

#122021048 / gettyimages.com Once, in desperation and fear of poverty, I nearly took a job as a communications director for Peter Goldring, the renegade Member of Parliament who is now advocating that male MPs wear Go-Pro cameras to guard against harassment charges by women on the Hill. I interviewed for the job. I liked Peter Goldring, mainly because he was interested in affordable housing even though he was a member of Stephen Harper's caucus. (He was later hoisted for being moist and garrulous, which made me like him even more.) I didn't realize he was a nut. He seemed genuinely sincere, and I accepted the position. Then I walked out of his office and met his chief of staff who looked very much like a cross-between John Waters and Harvey Pekar. Brrrrr. As I was leaving the office, the secretary motioned me over, and gave me a warning about the chief  of staff. He's weird, she said. Minutes later, I texted Mr. Goldring and said: "thanks but n...

It's now been a week since Jian Ghomeshi told his fans he was taking time away from CBC Radio, six days since the CBC said it was distancing itself from the great man, five days since the CBC fired him for his lifestyle choices, four days since the Toronto Star let loose a can of whoop ass on the host of Q, three days since the first woman put her name forward claiming he choked and hit her, two days since nine women came forward to say the same and worse. The scandal started slowly enough but quickly resulted in a white squall of outrage from women -- and right-thinking men -- who took to social media to express their disgust that the CBC allowed Ghomeshi to walk their halls for even one day after a woman complained about him cupping her butt and promising to fuck her with his Angry Inch. Boy, it must have been some week at the CBC, which is now so blown apart by this scandal that i...

Word came down from high yesterday that Mike Duffy's expense claims were going to be re-examined by the same Senate committee that whitewashed his case in the first place. This, after a Liberal proposal failed to have the whole thing punted into the waiting arms of the RCMP. Doesn't this make you feel better? And didn't you feel even better upon hearing that our Fearless Leader was "upset" and "angry" yesterday? Let me give you something else to think about. The head of that Senate committee is one Dave Tkachuk from Saskatchewan, a man who had a distinguished career as principal secretary to Grant Devine in the 1980s. His claim to fame back then was the time he tore the blouse of a female MLA. Which again makes a sane person wonder: how do these guys pass the smell test? Okay, so a history of sexual harassment shouldn't disqualify a guy from getting a cushy seat in the Senate and leading a probe into the expenses of his peers, right? T...