He's not done digging yet

Warren Kinsella's ejection from the Canadian Jewish Congress received the attention of Parliament yesterday. Here is a short speech on the subject by Lois Brown, MP:

Kinsella's instant reply: a veiled threat to sue Brown, if she says it again outside the confines of the House of Commons (which, under law, is immune to defamation suits).

Does Kinsella have any other moves left in his repertoire besides legal threats? I guess he does: he could try to mau-mau public broadcasters into refusing to ever, ever interview Brown again. but that would likely have about the same success Kinsella had with that tactic on TVO's Steve Paikin.

But even Kinsella's lawsuit threat (he sued me for $5-million, and it didn't have the terrifying effect he had hoped for; would he sue Brown for $50-million? Why not a cool billion?) is more pathetic than usual. Defamation suits against MPs, for comments made in the conduct of their business, are paid for by Parliament's Board of Internal Economy. In other words, MPs don't have to pay a dime for lawyers, and there isn't an insurance company pressing them to settle. An MP is about the toughest defamation defendant one could imagine.

I wouldn't wish a lawsuit on Brown, but it would be delicious to see Kinsella spend his time and money suing the impenetrable fortress that is Parliament's Legislative Counsel.

Yesterday I wrote a blog post genuinely expressing my hope that Kinsella starts coming back to normal, and leaves some of the rage behind him. I guess he's not ready to do that yet. Plenty of folks have said I was being inappropriately generous to such a bully. Perhaps they're right. But I ask you, dear reader, who do you think was hurt more by Kinsella's latest threat against Brown -- hurt politically, and hurt emotionally -- Brown, or Kinsella himself?