[LINK] "N.L. MP thinks pieing should be investigated under legal definition of terrorism"

[rfmcdonald]

Is it accurate for me to say that this ludicrousness is what you'd expect from someone from a nation that was seeing a visible-yet-unimportant cultural trait be criticized? Of course it is.

A Liberal MP thinks the federal government should investigate a U.S.-based animal rights group under Canada's anti-terrorism laws after a pie was pushed into the face of Fisheries Minister Gail Shea.

Gerry Byrne's outrage follows an incident Monday in which Shea was hit in the face with a tofu cream pie as she was about to deliver a speech in Burlington, Ont.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has taken responsibility for the incident, saying it was part of a campaign "to stop the government's ill-advised sanction of the slaughter of seals."

In an interview with radio station VOCM in St. John's, N.L., on Tuesday, Byrne said he thinks what happened should be reviewed under the legal definition of terrorism.

"When someone actually coaches or conducts criminal behaviour to impose a political agenda on each and every other citizen of Canada, that does seem to me to meet the test of a terrorist organization," said the MP from Newfoundland and Labrador.


"I am calling on the Government of Canada to actually investigate whether or not this organization, PETA, is acting as a terrorist organization under the test that exists under Canadian law."

[. . .]

Shea, who represents a P.E.I. riding, didn't require medical attention and returned to the podium after wiping the pie from her face.

Shea said afterward that the incident only strengthens her resolve to defend the hunt.