Canada's copyright czar's boomerang tantrum at Museum Assoc meeting

On Thursday, Bev Oda (Canada's besieged Heritage Minister) disgraced herself by storming out of a Canadian Museums Association lunch where she was the speaker. After her talk, the group's president gave her a boomerang and delivered a little speech about how her campaign promises would always come back to her. She refused to accept the boomerang and left without comment.

Bev Oda is the Heritage Minister — that means that her job is to provide support for Canada's cultural institutions, like museums. It's completely unacceptable for her to storm out of the room when these people (whom she is paid to keep happy) tell her that she needs to do a better job. What is she, a six year old?

This is just the latest in a string of shameful Oda incidents. When she was running for election, she financed her campaign by soliciting donations from multinational and American entertainment companies — the same companies it would be her job to regulate, should she be elected. Then she got caught taking money from those same companies after she was elected, and was forced to give it back. She's granted entertainment companies extraordinary access while shunning actual artists' groups. Most recently, she spent thousands of tax-dollars on a fleet of limos to chauffeur her and her staffers around (the small, walkable city of) Halifax during an awards show.

As a politician, Oda is a disgrace. Of course we'll fire her during the next election — but it seems a sure thing that her buddies from the entertainment industry will give her a cushy job once she's kicked out of office. Like Jabba the Hutt once said, she's their kind of scum.

So, to hammer home the association's impatience, the group's president, Calvin White, tried to present a boomerang to the minister to show that her election promise has come back to haunt her and must now be honoured.

Oda refused to accept the boomerang. The atmosphere grew tense…

Oda left, without comment, immediately after the boomerang incident.

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(via Michael Geist)