Apparently busy working mothers can’t possibly remember things well enough to give reliable testimony in court.
Last week when Judge Douglas Cunningham ruled that Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien was not guilty of influence peddling, the judge totally discredited Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod’s testimony because she’s a busy politician with a young child and husband.
“The defence was able to demonstrate that there were a number of rather significant things going on in her life when she gave her statement to the police. ... She was commuting regularly to Toronto for her work, leaving her husband and child in Ottawa,”
He concluded that her evidence was not corroborative of the Crown’s main witness and said, “I must assign it little weight.”
Awesome, because you know we just have too many women in politics. Women aren’t being put off enough by the crazy hours, intense scrutiny or “old boy’s club”.
If a successful MPP can’t work and have a family and give reliable evidence, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Maybe all working mothers should be barred from giving testimony in court because our delicate lady brains just can’t be trusted to do all that at once.
This story reminds me of being stopped by a business man type, a young guy in a suit, who asked me what time it was.
As soon as he asked, he took a second look at me with my son in his stroller and my daughter walking along side, then sneered, and said -never mind, why would you care what time it is!
I still remember how furious, and offended I was at this snotty young man who obviously thought motherhood carried no deadlines or obligations and was just a long carefree vacation.
Seems to me that kind of thinking was evident in the comments of this judge too. Contempt for women never goes out of style, my example is 33 years old.
Posted by: Deb O'Connor | August 18, 2009 at 09:20 AM