Patrick Brown:

The media trial and execution of the PC party leader in Ontario earned the eager approval of nearly everyone interviewed on electronic media. All agreed that women need to be protected from sexually aggressive men.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath even marvelled about how brave those two anonymous plaintiffs were and pointed to the Jian Ghomeshi verdict as her reason.

Nobody worried that making such accusations anonymously and piling on someone with so much to lose may be viewed as a vindictive, insensitive act that can do damage out of all proportions to the alleged misdemeanour.

Nobody appeared to worry about ruined reputations, livelihoods, destroyed careers and tarnished family values, all before any proof of guilt was offered.

It is possible--even probable--that resurrecting an event insignificant enough to be ignored for ten years can qualify as an extremely vengeful, malicious thing to do.

We don't know who these mortally wounded women are, but joining the speculation here, we should be free to imagine them to be a pair of tramps taking the opportunity to brag about who they were able to get intimately friendly with just a few years ago.

The alleged villain is always some high-profile male, especially if he is financially viable and/or socially significant. It is never one of the street people or some poor beggar who they once eagerly joined for a romp in some back alley trash dumpster. It's got to be a Donald Trump, a Bill Cosby or some randy movie director.

All this is the new norm in today's social consciousness. There are many sick people out there, and not all of them are saddled with problems of sexual promiscuity.