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They were repeatedly exhorted to remember that the accused men, Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, were presumed to be innocent and that the burden of proving them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt was the prosecution’s.

Esseghaier and Jaser, neither of whom called any evidence or testified (Esseghaier didn’t even participate in the trial, leaving Judge Code to go to extraordinary lengths to protect his rights), had to do nothing, prove nothing, lift not a finger.

And all that is just as it should be; that is the glory that is a criminal trial in our democracy.

In Ottawa, Mr. Trudeau issued a brisk press release saying his own hired gun, human rights lawyer Cynthia Petersen, had done a bang-up job investigating the allegations against Messrs. Andrews and Pacetti (her report was not made public), that he accepted their decisions to sit as independents and not to seek Liberal nominations in their ridings, and that the matter was now closed.

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From Vancouver, New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair pledged to continue “offering support” to his two female MPs who were the alleged victims and said, “I’m going to hope that they will be able to do exactly as they wish, which is to move on from this.”

(And why should they not do exactly as they wish? Haven’t they all along?)

And that was that: Two men who had been accused publicly, their reputations ruined, by the two NDP MPs who have been allowed by both parties and the press to remain anonymous, had been investigated privately, and now all their leaders could say was that there was nothing to see here, move along folks, and, oh yes, hugs for the ladies.