Norman Spector Sues The Vancouver Sun

On Saturday, November 18, 2006 Vancouver Sun columnist, Daphne Bramham wrote a column that featured this comment:

[Ralph] Klein's verbal abuse of Stronach followed former ambassador Norman Spector's repeated references to Stronach as a "bitch" on a Vancouver radio show. The former adviser and confidante to both a prime minister and a premier sanctimoniously tried to bluster his way out of it, claiming that he was using an arcane definition from the Oxford Dictionary meaning treacherous behaviour. I've not been able to find it in any of the versions of Oxford I've consulted.

Respected broadcaster Bill Good let Spector say it more than once. He didn't have to. There's a delay on his program that allows him to censor callers who swear or say distasteful, rude or libelous things.

Good choice not to use that delay for Spector's remarks, which had followed Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay's sexist slurring of Stronach in the House of Commons.

If Canada's so-called intellectual elites -- politicians, advisers, political activists and headline writers who all have the power to influence -- see nothing wrong with using words to belittle and injure women, it's no surprise that the policies they help formulate do so little to protect women.

Spector has just sued The Sun for libel for alleging that he made up the definition of the word. As a preview to the lawsuit, I just consulted the online Oxford Dictionary:

bitch

• noun 1 a female dog, wolf, fox, or otter. 2 informal a woman whom one considers to be malicious or unpleasant. 3 black English a woman (used in a non-derogatory sense). 4 (a bitch) informal a difficult or unpleasant thing or situation.

• verb informal make spiteful comments.

— ORIGIN Old English


Seems to me that he has a pretty darn good case. Perhaps Ms. Bramham should think twice in the future before condemning any man who dares to criticize any public female figure even if her actions very much invite it.