How to End a Career in 24 Seconds: Dr. Flanagan
A Canadian Conservative has to do a lot to be punted by the Wildrose party and the Manning Centre.
Thomas Flanagan did that on Wednesday by condoning the consumption of child pornography. See the recorded video below of his response to a question on his views on child pornography.
His argumentation basically noted that the individual act of viewing a pornographic image of a child being molested was an act that was tied to personal liberty, and that viewing such images were allowable and in fact should be protected. Additionally, he noted that child pornography as a medium did not harm people. He made a point of saying that his views were different from the federal Conservatives and that he was at odds with their justice policy.
The CBC, the University of Calgary, and (of course) the already listed conservative groups disagreed with Dr. Flanagan. And promptly removed him from their scheduled speaking programs, broadcasts, and active staff.
Previous Attacks
Child pornography has been used as a tool by the Conservatives to attack their opposition over the last decade. Particularly, with Bill C-31 minister Vic Toews declared that anyone opposed to that bill were siding with “child pornographers.”
The Hon. Paul Martin was also tarred by the Conservatives in 2004 when the Harper campaign attacked Martin with a press release asking whether or not Martin was a supporter of child pornography.
Dr. Flanagan has since apologized and will be retiring from the University of Calgary’s political science department in June at the end of his research and scholarship leave.
2 Responses to How to End a Career in 24 Seconds: Dr. Flanagan
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“Thomas Flanagan did that on Wednesday by condoning child pornography.”
That’s a pretty serious claim. I’ve seen the video, no where in it does he say he supports the production of child pornography. What is your evidence?
Edited my blog post to be more precise. Sorry for the confusion, Scott.