Organized Crime Expert Okays Harper’s Usage

Liberals are brimming with more indignation than usual over Stephen Harper’s statement in the House of Commons last Thursday that they broke “every conceivable law in the province of Quebec with the help of organized crime.” The Liberals insist that they are entitled to an apology from Harper. (Why don’t they save us all a lot of time and just tell us what they’re not entitled to?) Personally, I think the Conservatives were relieved of any obligation to defer to Liberal sensibilities since Joe Volpe described two Conservative MPs as devotees of the Ku Klux Klan this spring –and refused to apologize.

Anyhow, celebrated organized crime author James Dubro has helpfully weighed in on the issue of Harper’s use of the term “organized crime” with this letter in Monday’s Globe and Mail:

Organized crime is not just the Mafia and bikers (The Harper Slur – editorial, Nov. 26). The gang that orchestrated and ran the sponsorship scandal were sophisticated, highly organized criminals. As the co-author of the definition of “organized crime” in all editions of The Canadian Encyclopedia, I would suggest that being referred to as members of an organized crime entity is an appropriate, even restrained description for some of the members of the Liberal Party and the Quebec ad agencies that systematically scammed so much money from the public purse.
JAMES DUBRO, Toronto