The Federal Government Ought To Pick It's Battles

I'm sure I'm not the only person baffled by the Shane Doan controversy that has heated up in the last week. For those of you who have managed to avoid this waste of government and media time, Shane Doan is a hockey player who has been appointed captain of Canada's team at the World Hockey Championships in Russia. The controversy stems from alleged racials slurs (directed towards our Francophone countrymen) in a game in 2005. Doan was cleared by the NHL and the issue was dead... until recently when some politicians decided to make a big fuss over it and bring Hockey Canada members before the government to explain their choice of Doan as captain of this years team.

Besides the obvious waste of time (I think the issue of Afghanistan and the new information about the Air India incident might be a more pressing need right now), this makes absolutely no sense. Did the politicians make this much stink when they named Doan to the 2006 Olympic team? And what about Todd Bertuzzi (there, I did it, I mentioned the name of two people who shouldn't get attention today) being named to the Olympic squad? Did he not maliciously attack someone on the ice, in front of cameras? Surely the government would not want 'Bert' to represent our country...

I'm at a loss at this point. I, like many others, think that this whole dialogue has been an exercise just to get votes. I'm not sure if anything has been accomplished...