July 20, 2000

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The new tone of politics: Soak it, fatso

By Paul Adams

Ottawa -- A federal election may be many months away, but the hissing and spitting between the Liberals and the Canadian Alliance is now officially under way. Some of the words and phrases flying around yesterday included crypto-fascist, sleazy, smear artist, and even "Go soak your head, fatso."

Who started all this depends on your point of view.

Yesterday, the Alliance issued a press release decorated with the head of Liberal activist Warren Kinsella on the body of a spider. The headline read: Spinning Warren's Web.

Mr. Kinsella is a former ministerial aide, a one-time Liberal candidate and a self-appointed Liberal tough guy.

He is sometimes described as head of the party's "rapid-response unit" for the next campaign, though the party and Mr. Kinsella deny he has any official role.

Mr. Kinsella has been vocal and acerbic on the subject of the Alliance's new leader, Stockwell Day, calling him, for example, "Archie Bunker on rollerskates."

In its press release yesterday, the Alliance called Mr. Kinsella "the Liberals' chief drive-by smear artist" and quoted a recent exchange of e-mails with a West Coast journalist, Leo Knight. Mr. Kinsella was apparently commenting on a column by Mr. Knight critical of the Liberals.

"You are a press secretary for Reform/CCRAP, you chrome-domed troglodyte," Mr. Kinsella began. "The Grits will wipe the floor with Mr. Day, or whoever CCRAP dredges up."

When Mr. Knight replied by mocking Mr. Kinsella's failed attempt to win a seat in the last federal election, he received a follow-up e-mail calling him a "baldie crypto-fascist" and saying, "I look forward to your next monosyllabic attempt at commentary in der Sturmer!" (Der Sturmer was a Nazi newspaper known for its vicious anti-Semitism.)

All the e-mails -- three in total -- came from Mr. Kinsella's e-mail address at McMillan Binch, the prominent Toronto law firm where he works as a lawyer. The final e-mail was terse and to the point. "Go soak your head, fatso," it read.

Mr. Knight published the e-mails in a column in the North Shore News, a community newspaper in North Vancouver. Yesterday, Mr. Knight could not be reached for comment, but he wrote in his column that Mr. Kinsella's messages were examples of Liberal "arrogance."

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Kinsella did not apologize for his language. He said he is a private citizen. "If I want to send a note or two to a representative of a newspaper that's more popularly known for Holocaust denial, I will do so."

The North Shore News has attracted controversy in the past for the extreme views expressed in its pages. Former columnist Doug Collins was ordered by a human-rights tribunal to refrain from statements that could expose Jewish people to hatred or contempt, after a series of columns in the paper.

Related files on this Website:

Toronto Smearmonger Kinsella Outlives his Welcome

Index on Warren Kinsella