The Dark Side of Political Candidacy

We do so often discover more than we perhaps want to know about an individual when he/she stands for public office. There is the innocuous instance of Justin Trudeau, elder son of the late Pierre Elliot Trudeau who has recently affirmed that he plans to enter political office, and indeed handily won the nomination for his selected riding in Montreal. Mind, why a besotted riding would select Justin Trudeau over two alternate candidates either of whom it would appear, might have been a credit to the Liberal party, is beyond the serious onlooker.

Justin Trudeau's determination to follow in his father's career path, paved by his late father's reputation as a controversial but revered former prime minister of this country came after much speculation, a bit of encouragement from admirers and some of his father's former colleagues. As opposed to the general public's disdain for this very wet-behind-the-ears young man who fancies himself in the image of his father but who cannot shake the spectre of self-important political dilettante.

Harmless, however, in and of itself, since he may yet grow into a worthwhile political personage, shedding callow youth and insouciant arrogance behind. Chalk up one potential for the Liberal Party of Canada. What harm, after all, could his candidacy do for the party, struggling to reinvent itself and reinvest itself with the public trust? Other than to deny that opportunity to one of two other would-be candidates for the post who might conceivably have brought an agenda beyond family dynasty to the matter at hand.

With Justin Trudeau the Liberal Party is not scraping the bottom of the barrel; just skimming its surface. But with Farhan Mujahid Chak, the federal Liberal party's new face who won the Liberal nomination on March 31 for Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont, they may just have entered a true lunatic fringe, but beyond that, someone whose brain is rattling about in his cranium, with the added impetus of bringing the virus of racism to the public stage.

There are, it would appear, three strikes against Mr. Chak, recently revealed through the media, uncovering some dingy, some malodorous and some pitiful facts about this political aspirant to public office.

The dingy part relates to his having faced criminal charges (undisclosed to the party pre-nomination as 'required' by nominee-disclosure terms) when Edmonton police had charged him with aggravated assault and use of an illegal firearm after a 1993 shooting at an Edmonton nightclub. That he was not convicted of the charges does nothing to particularly instill confidence in this individual.

The malodorous element lies with his having accused Israel of "murdering children and raping women", and "terrorism, massacres and savagery" in the Palestinian territories. Mr. Chak embellished this sterling slander with the suggestion that Western governments were secretly behind terrorist attacks assumed to be the work of Islamist terrorists; planning, executing and attributing the attacks to Muslim extremists, but themselves the authors of same.

Not sufficiently damning? How about his having accused the government of Canada last year of pursuing an agenda of "racial superiority", and plotting to "destabilize Poland"? Political this man most certainly is. Rational, however? Intelligent? Someone to entrust with the political oversight of this country? Nothing could be too far-fetched; bring the man into the Liberal fold, polish up the rough exterior and present him as the finest Canada has to offer on the political scene.

Haven't the Liberals been through this type of scatter-brained and potentially harmful business before? Oh, not quite; the distemper of this individual is of a rare quality; his world view a trifle on the egregiously-disturbing side; his opinions and perceptions to be side-stepped in a little dance of avoidance. Not to blame the Liberal party too harshly; their application for candidacy does seek to avoid just such a contretemps.

Aspiring nominees are required to submit all writing "published or widely distributed"; disclosure of ever having been "charged in Canada or elsewhere, with any crime, offence or delinquency under a state or ordinance". He just kind of slipped by all this; not their fault. Due diligence, what's that? This man is definitely making some within the Liberal fold a trifle nervous, but he has refused kindly requests to step down until his credibility bona fides are resolved.

Oh, the third trifling perturbation, the pitiful part of the charade? Falsification of resume. He claimed to have earned a doctoral degree from Durham University in England. Whoops! Evidently not so. "He has not submitted his thesis" according to the secretary of student records at the university, who clarified that he had been a student, but was no longer registered with them.

Which hasn't stopped him from referring to himself as "Farham Chak, Ph.D," and signing off as "Dr. Farhan Chak". A fanciful aspirant to the mantle of Liberal member of Parliament. Let us give credit where it is due.