Dion ditches candidate over remarks about 9-11
Updated Fri. Sep. 26 2008 4:57 PM ET

The Canadian Press

TORONTO -- Stephane Dion began his day defending Lesley Hughes over accusations of anti-Semitism.

But by lunchtime Friday the Liberal leader had unceremoniously dumped the Winnipeg-area candidate in an abrupt move that seemed as much about removing the tarnish of intolerance from the party brand as it did with buffing his leadership image.

Hughes came under fire for an old blog posting in which she suggested Israeli intelligence warned the United States in advance of the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and that "Israeli businesses" vacated the premises beforehand.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080925/election200...

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has asked Winnipeg-area candidate Lesley Hughes to step down over an old column in which she suggested Israeli companies were given a heads-up about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.

On Friday, Ms. Hughes, speaking to CBCNewsworld, described her dismissal by the Liberal party as “incredibly unjust.”

She appeared to be shocked when she learned of her dismissal on air from a CBC reporter.

“I have no time for conspiracy theories about the Jewish population whatever,” she said. “The article that I wrote, for anyone who reads it carefully, is very clearly innocent of any kind of anti-Semitic feeling. I'm just absolutely stunned by this.”

Earlier this morning at a Toronto event, Mr. Dion had rejected Ms. Hughes' writings but declined to go further....

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080926.welexstepdow...

Winnipeg Free Press (September 28,2008)
Excerpt...

Dion kept hammering away at Richardson, which provoked the Tories even more. Then, someone in Toronto got wind of a Manitoba blog that had posted a somewhat forgotten article by Hughes about 9/11 that argued the attacks were indeed an inside job and that Israel had advance warning and warned Israeli businesses to abandon offices in the World Trade Center.

Hughes is, in fact, a frequent participant in 911-conspiracy panels and events involving the infamous Barry Zwicker and his "9-11 Truth Squads." For those not familiar with Zwicker, he and his group are, from a tactical and philosophical bent, out on the same limb of credibility as the anti-childhood vaccination activists. They are movements driven by the unsubstantiated ravings of "Internet journalists" who, characters like Hughes are only too happy to tell you, have the courage to report things the regular media does not.

Based on her affinity with Zwicker and the 9/11 truth squads, the Liberals should have known better than to put her on the Grit ticket.

But is Hughes an anti-Semitic lunatic? Opinions certainly vary, but she is hardly a Holocaust denier. And as a scandal, Hughesgate is hardly Adscam. In fact, it's not even as intriguing or as important as the Chuck Cadman affair. Hughes' comments were not taken out of context, but they have been blown out of proportion. She is off base, but she is neither extremist nor radical, and perhaps she deserved a better fate than a Google execution. But that's politics.

Politics has always been a thankless, relentlessly gruelling business that requires politicians to live to a much higher standard than the rest of us. Thanks to Google and other unblinking Internet archives, a tough job has become significantly tougher.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

Complete story at : http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/election/story/4231686p-4872949c.html