Canadian MP suggests Parliament members wear a body camera at all times to prevent false accusations. Quickly retracts his statement

Regardless of the political correctness at play, the comments/advice of Edmonton East MP Peter Goldring is absolutely solid, especially for men in high power positions. Unfortunately he is now “retracting” (i.e. forced to take back) his statements.

Given all the new legislation, and widening definitions regarding consent, rape and sexual assault, does it surprise anyone that men in prominent positions would feel a need to start wearing body cameras. Men have no other option.

CBC News reports:

Edmonton East MP Peter Goldring now says he deeply regrets a statement he issued Wednesday that advised fellow members of Parliament to wear body cameras at all times for “risk protection” and to “prevent besmirchment.”

The statement drew immediate and widespread criticism from other parties and shocked political pundits.

Hours later, a second statement was issued on Goldring’s behalf through the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Earlier today I issued a press release that I now recognize was completely inappropriate,” the second statement read. “I retract that press release unconditionally and deeply regret it.”

The sixty-nine-year-old Conservative MP’s original statement appears to have been prompted by the allegations of harassment made recently by two female New Democrat MPs against two male Liberal MPs, who have since been suspended from their caucus.

“It will not be good enough to simply say that your intentions were honourable and you were just inviting a colleague to your apartment at two in the morning to play a game of Scrabble at the end of a day of playing sports and drinking,” said Goldring’s statement, issued from a parliamentary email address.

“MPs must learn, as I have from encounters with authority figures in the past, that all do not tell the truth. I now wear ‘protection’ in the form of body-worn video recording equipment,” the statement said.

“I suggest that others do so too, particularly because some accusers hide behind a shield of supposed credibility which many times is not, and sometimes even hide behind a cloak of anonymity, which conceals their shameful indiscretion and complicity.”

NDP MP Megan Leslie called Goldring’s comments “preposterous” during an interview on CBC News Network’s Power & Politics Wednesday evening. She said his statement trivializes a very serious issue.

“I’ll take a deep breath and say that ‘accusers’ is code for ‘women.’ This is slut-shaming at its finest … the idea of ‘she asked for it,’ a lack of credibility about a woman coming forward,” she said.

Liberal MP Ralph Goodale told Power & Politics host Evan Solomon he thinks the “rather strange ramble” doesn’t add much to the “serious examination of a serious topic.”

“I think it reflects a pretty archaic point of view and I would think members of the government would want to distance themselves pretty quickly from that statement of policy, if that’s what Mr. Goldring intended it to be,” Goodale said.

I would think feminists would love Mr. Goldrings idea, and push the whole “men wearing a camera” thing into law.

If men are forced to wear a camera than they will think twice before making any inappropriate advances towards female colleagues. Think about it, it’s the ultimate deterrent. Mens’ advances will be recorded, so no more ambiguity on the whole “she asked for it” debate.

Women, knowing that the man has a camera, will also never dare to falsely accuse men of sexual assault anymore. Mr. Goldring may be on to something, a real win-win for the sexes.

The entire western world is already CCTV’ed up and NSA spied on from top to bottom, so why not just take the surveillance, police state thing one notch higher.

After all feminists were totally cool about the whole 10 hours in New York, catcalling youtube video exposing the pigs men are. Why not video tape more day to day interaction between the genders…what could women possibly have to lose?

References:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/peter-goldring-retracts-statement-advising-mps-to-wear-body-cameras-1.2851472