He has grave doubts

February 28, 2013 5:28 PM

Tom Flanagan, ex-advisor to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, has apologized for saying he had “grave doubts” about jailing people who view child pornography (his comments start at 1:50). He's lost his job, and most (likely all) of his speaking engagements in the aftermath.
posted by kneecapped (4 comments total)

The full quote:

“I certainly have no sympathy for child molesters, but I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures,” said Flanagan.

“It’s a real issue of personal liberty and to what extent we put people in jail for doing something in which they do not harm another person.”

He's not in trouble because he's not sure viewers of child pornography should be imprisoned, he's in trouble because he thinks child pornography is just a matter of personal taste that doesn't harm anyone.
posted by escabeche at 5:32 PM on February 28, 2013

Yep. He's a moron talking about something he doesn't understand. Not unusual in politics and punditry, but it's refreshing to see one get fired for his astounding ignorance, for once.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:35 PM on February 28, 2013

Is there anything that can be said about this without having yet another conversation about child pornography? Flagged as OutrageFilter.
posted by Nomyte at 5:37 PM on February 28, 2013

We can all stand and marvel that some in Canadian politics would be so stupid to bring up child porn as an example for some unrelated point he was trying to make. I don't think we'll get a lot of dissent on how terrible child porn is, but we can all wonder why he'd bring it up. It was just straight out of nowhere.
posted by GuyZero at 5:40 PM on February 28, 2013