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It’s been another bad stretch for Stephen Harper. The spectacle of his Senators using their majority to overrule the Speaker to have a private members’ bill, C-377, declared a government bill, a clear violation of the rules, was another new low for Canada’s chamber of no thought.

The image of Harper’s handpicked former Parliamentary Secretary, Dean del Mastro, being led away in handcuffs was even worse. But the lowest point, frankly of recent memory, had to be the new Tory attack ads on Justin Trudeau and the government’s defence of them. The ads were a response to Trudeau’s policy announcement that he would stop bombing ISIS if he won the election in October.

It is a policy that differentiates his party from Harper’s and it is an issue worthy of debate. Harper is not big on policy debates; he likes to destroy those who have a different opinion than he does. The latest ads include ISIS’s own terrorist propaganda, complete with the soundtrack of the Islamic State anthem. The “ad” includes an image of men in cages being lowered into a pool to be drowned and another showing prisoners on their knees with explosives wrapped around their necks.

Is it possible that the ads contravene the government’s own anti-terrorism law, Bill C-51? It is an offence to create or promote terrorist propaganda, which includes any “writing, sign, visible representation or audio recording that advocates or promotes the commission of terrorism offenses in general.” The Tories are no stranger to criminal investigations but it is unlikely their ads violate the law, although they are disgusting and ISIS is probably laughing at the fact that Harper is helping them get their message out.

Enter former Harper director of communications and erstwhile Sun Media executive Kory Teneycke. He told Tom Clark the Conservatives are only showing ISIS forwhat they are — bad people who do bad things. They simply want to show the difference between the Liberals and the Tories. They are just doing the same thing that news outlets do every night but, “We’re better than news, because we’re truthful.”

After seeing the transcript of Teneycke’s interview with Clark, Harper must have wished for more video of Dean del Mastro in chains. Kory probably gets lots of slaps on the back from the kids in short pants when he gets back to the office after standing up to those Liberal journalists, but Harper would do well to never let this man near a television camera again.

Chris Hall pointed out on CBC’s Power and Politics that the Tories might be off-message if people are talking about how offensive the ads are as opposed to talking about what Trudeau said. There were no images disseminated of the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazi groups after the brutal terrorist attack that took place in the Charleston on June 17. It is not surprising, given that Harper and Jason Kenney could not even muster the energy to tweet about it.

There were no messages of prayers for the families of the victims, as there were after the attacks in Kuwait, France and Tunisia last week. The mass killing in Charleston was a planned attack by a racist. If Michael Zehaf-Bibeau is a terrorist, then Dylann Roof is a terrorist. So why the silence from Harper and company? Did the terrorist not look the right way? Did he worship the wrong God? Did he attack the wrong people for the wrong reason? Reports from both the U.S. and Canada suggest there is a greater risk from people like Roof and Timothy McVeigh than the jihadi terrorists. According to the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society, “In the last 15 years, 59 per cent of lone wolf attacks were ideologically motivated by the white supremacist movement.”

The murder of nine black people in a church in Charleston does not mesh with Harper’s campaign of fear. U.S. President Barack Obama talked about gun control, not bombs and warplanes. The families of some of the victims talked about forgiveness and love, not hatred and panic. These messages do not fit into the Tory narrative so they do not matter. Hmmm, what was it Kory said about telling the truth?

Steve Sullivan has been advocating for victims for almost 20 years, having served as the President of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime and as the first Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime. He has testified before numerous Parliamentary Committees on victims’ rights, justice reform and public safety issues and has conducted training for provincial and federal victim services. He is currently the Executive Director of Ottawa Victim Services and a part-time professor at Algonquin College in the Victimology Graduate Certificate Program. His views are his own and do not represent any agency he is associated with.

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