I know for a fact that there are good politicians out there; well-meaning people who have to deal with much frustration being surrounded by idiots. However, it seems that when you put them all in a group, the outcome is less than favorable. Tonight, Canadian Members of Parliament gathered to vote on whether or not they liked the content of an article written by Maclean’s, a private magazine, calling the province of Quebec “corrupt.”

MPs took the unprecedented step Wednesday night of unanimously denouncing articles published by the country’s national news magazine, Maclean’s.Maclean’s had published a controversial cover story pronouncing Quebec the “most corrupt province in Canada.” The accompanying article traced a series of scandals in that province from the Duplessis era in the 1950s through to the Liberal sponsorship scandal and the present-day Bastarache Commission hearings into allegations that politicians improperly influenced the appointment of judges.

But the suggestion that all of Quebec was the “most corrupt province” was too much, apparently, for MPs from all parties, who unanimously supported the motion from Bloc Quebecois MP Pierre Paquette “that this House, while recognizing the importance of vigorous debate on subjects of public interest, expresses its profound sadness at the prejudice displayed and the stereotypes employed by Maclean’s Magazine to denigrate the Quebec nation, its history and its institutions.”

One M.P., Andre Arthur, an independent from Quebec actually stood out against this motion on the grounds that “Parliament has no business to criticize the work of reporters.” Arthur has a bit of a reputation of being a trouble maker, but he’s the only Member of Parliament to approach this motion (put forth by a Marxist separatist) from the right angle: no one cares whether or not the content of the article is objectionable, the question at hand is whether or not government should hold massive votes to express their disapproval of something written in a private publication.

First off, the article in Maclean’s was accurate: Quebec’s provincial administrations and politicians at other levels have a substantially murkier track record when it comes to corruption than the rest of Canada does. Even if that weren’t the case, however, I don’t really see the advantage to the government of passing motions condemning the work of reporters. To Maclean’s, this is a gift from above as the audience of this particular story has now grown exponentially, but this is unnecessary government meddling to the extreme.

My request to our readers: call your M.P.’s office asking them why it’s the business of government to condemn the writing of individual reporters. Email me or leave their responses (or lack thereof) in the comments section!