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In defence of 14-year-old girls

By Stratty June 27, 2012 #attendance, #bruce hyer, #Canadian Politics, #CDNPoli, #charlie angus, #Civic Engagement, #civility, #Dale Smith, #decorum, #House of Commons, #Huffington Post, #Jen Ditchburn, #Justin Trudeau, #Marc Garneau, #NDP, #pat martin, #Patrick Brazeau, #Question Period, #Senate, #social media, #Twitter, #Youth

So it was that MP Charlie Angus, the NDP’s self-appointed guardian of civility, has declared that Twitter has “turned us all into 14-year-olds in a cafeteria” where “[e]verybody gets to be a Grade 9 girl.”

Yesterday’s context, of course, was Patrick Brazeau’s calling reporter Jen Ditchburn a “bitch” because she wrote an article that mentioned Brazeau’s poor attendance record, and for sure, the senator’s remarks were immature, though I’d argue more in keeping with the mindset of a hormonal male bully than a grade-nine girl.

But here’s more context: as Dale Smith rightly points out, Angus “makes (Read more…)