Kung Fu Fighting in Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized in Parliament on Wednesday, after he rushed across the floor to get Conservative opposition whip Gord Brown by his arm, to direct him to his seat. In doing so, he was also accused of elbowing NDP member of parliament Ruth Ellen Brosseau in her chest. The media reported that Justin got into a shouting match with NDP opposition leader Tom Mulcair.

In my opinion, this incident was overly sensationalized by the media: Canada's prime minister manhandled a member of parliament; physical altercation in the Canadian Parliament; prime minister physically assaulted a female member of parliament and so on and on. The opposition party politicians certainly took advantage of Justin's mistake and kept pounding at him even after he had repeatedly apologized.

Justin was impatient to get a procedural vote on an assisted dying legislation, to meet a soon coming June deadline set out by the Supreme Court of Canada. He crossed the floor to get Gord Brown because the opposition party members were playing political games in the house, by blocking Gord from moving. Justin lost his cool. In getting Gord, Justin accidentally elbowed Ruth's chest. It was an accident, not an assault. If such body contact was interpreted to be an assault, then many people on the big cities' crowded transit trains and buses would become both offenders and victims. 

All said, Justin was wrong in crossing the floor to get Gord Brown, but he was right in quickly giving his complete and repeated apology.

This whole thing is a serious matter, but it also makes me laugh. It reminds me of the politicians in other countries who literally fought and got into physical violence. This happened in Taiwan, South Korea, Ukraine and other countries. Compared with these nations, what happened in the Canadian Parliament on Wednesday was something so very mild.  

In South Korea, I learned that the politicians would preplan how to fight, and make sure that they would be captured in the news footage. The purpose was to show their constituents how hard they worked, even willing to literally fight for them in the legislature. In Canada, it is the first time that something like this happened in parliament.

Putting seriousness aside, I now dream of making a funny movie showing such fights in different countries. For the U.S., the politicians would dress up like cowboys and shoot at one another with jumbo guns. For Canada, they would fight with hockey sticks. Needless to say, the theme song for the satirical movie would be 'kung fu fighting'. Ouch Canada!