Conservatives invoke right to remain silent over disgusting gang rape joke

It seems like everyone wants to get on the public record their disdain for gang rape comments made by a Conservative MP – except Conservative MPs.

Robert Goguen, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice,actually asked a victim of gang rape, who was appearing as a parliamentary witness this week as an advocate against sexual slavery (she herself had been forced to work as a prostitute in Toronto), if her “freedom of expression” would have been breached had police “broken in and rescued you.”

Goguen, trying to score political points during a rare summer sitting of the House of Commons Justice Committee to study the government’s prostitution bill, pressed on with his intellectual gibberish:

“What I’m saying is you weren’t freely expressing yourself by being raped by three men … If you were rescued, you wouldn’t feel like your rights were violated? You don’t get it. OK.”

On Wednesday, Ottawa Citizen writer Kate Heartfield put Goguen in his place:

“His stupid and cruel use of a victim of gang rape to help him score a cheap rhetorical joke was an offence not only to the woman who had to live through his glib hypothesizing about her experience, but also to the dignity of Parliament.”

Too bad Goguen’s colleagues appear to be invoking their right to remain silent about his deeply offensive performance.

Here’s a sampling of what a few of his fellow Conservatives at the Justice Committee have found time to comment on while taking a pass on the elephant in the room:

Photo: cpac.ca