07 May Cynical pandering to media-fomented hatred of politicians

The Dexter Government’s decision to make a retroactive grab for disgraced MLA Trevor Zinck’s pension should not pass without comment. It is a cynical exercise in pre-election pandering to public hatred of politicians.

The pandering ploy reflects badly on the government as a whole, but especially on the lawyers among its ranks, including Darrell Dexter and Graham Steele, both of whom certainly know better.

The courts should be left to deal with Mr. Zinck according to the evidence as it may be adduced at trial, and the law as it existed at the time his of alleged crimes and misdemeanors. His fate should not be determined by politicians in a panic over their shaky chances of returning as a majority government, or anxious to in appease a media-fomented public clammor for retribution.

This PR-motivated retroactive tampering with justice is especially unworthy of a party with social democratic pretentions, because it opens the door to retroactive attacks on the past earnings and entitlements of all manner of unpopular groups—-Welfare recipients, people with criminal records, and the mentally ill. It deprives innocent dependents of earned income security they had every right to assume they could count on.

I hope but doubt that one of the opposition parties will have the gumption and the integrity to oppose this tawdry measure.