May I summarize by saying my positionality on Laurier’s apologies is problematic and my problematics on their positionality is profound – The value of an apology is inversely proportional to the public relations pressure under which it was given. Principia Apologia, auth. Bertha Newton (Isaac’s sadly overshadowed sister)
According to that metric, which I enthusiastically endorse, the twin mea culpas from Wilfrid Laurier University to Lindsay Shepherd (one from its president, Deborah MacLatchy, the other from the leader of the troika who visited the Thought Correction Session on Shepherd, Nathan Rambukkana) approach, if not collide with, zero value.
I am heartened in this view by the consideration that Post colleague Christie Blatchford frowned most mercilessly on Laurier’s whispered regrets. Gifted with a jeweller’s eye in such matters, Blatchford applied the adjectives “craven, dissembling, and revisionist” to their efforts, adding — good sport that she is — that she would “tell them all to blow the mea culpas out their various bums.” (Christie, ambivalent as always.)
Rex Murphy – National Post – November 24, 2017.