Part Five: Critical Comment: A Humourist Weighs In:

"ALL DR. SMITH DID WAS POINT THE BLAME FOR THE DEATHS AT THE ACCUSED, BASED ON HIS AUTOPSY EXAMINATIONS IN WHICH HE USED THE SKILL AND FINESSE OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS ON SKATES;

MARCEL STRIGBERGER; |RESPONSIBILITY R US);
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The talented Toronto lawyer and humourist Marcel Strigberger has waded into the Smith saga with a column which ran yesterday (Sunday April 13) on legalhumour.com., that ran under the heading, "Responsibility R Us."

"Have you noticed that people are taking less and less responsibility for their actions?," the column begins.

"They screw up and instead of admitting same they find somebody or something else to blame their actions on, somebody other than themselves," it continues;

"The following examples were in the news recently.

"Let's start with the public inquiry of pathologist Dr. Charles Smith, whose faulty post mortems sent a number of accused innocent people to penitentiary for the alleged murder of children between 1991 and 2001.

Lawyers for Dr Smith did admit he had something to do with the wrongful convictions but went on to point their legal fingers at "the system”.

Dr. Smith was just part of the system.

Of course he was.

The fault lies just as much with other folks.

After all it was the jury member who found those innocent people guilty.

And it was the judge who put them behind bars.

All Dr. Smith did was point the blame for the deaths at the accused, based on his autopsy examinations in which he used the skill and finesse of a hippopotamus on skates.

Frankly I am surprised that his inquiry lawyers have not suggested that Dr Smith get nominated for the Nobel Prize.

And speaking of skates, we then see Jonathan Roy, goalie for the Quebec Remparts and son of Hall of Fame goalie Patrick, impress us with his brilliance.

During a fight involving some players, Roy skates from his net across the entire length of the arena and with the momentum of a locomotive, rams into the opposing goalie.

He then leisurely punches and pummels said goalie while the poor unsuspecting guy is wiggling on the ice like a worm.

Roy then leaves the ice, and for the pièce de résistance, he gives the local Chicoutimi booing fans the finger.

When interviewed the next day, Roy blames his cool behaviour on a "rush of adrenalin”.

He says something like, "normally I'm a nice guy, readily rivalling the placid qualities of Mahatma Ghandi. But last night, hey. Funny thing that adrernalin."

And of course we have that damages claim against former Vancouver Canuck Todd Bertuzzi who attacked Avalanche player Steven Moore from the rear, crippling him and ending his hockey career.

Todd had a great excuse for his actions.

It’s all the fault of his former coach.

Third Party claim blames said coach for "failing to exercise control over and caution his players when he knew or ought to have known that this was likely to result in injury to Moore.”

I for one am surprised that Bertuzzi did not sue the NHL for failing to award him the Lady Byng Trophy.

After all he probably feels his actions constituted the epitome of gentlemanly and sportsmanlike conduct.

These guys make former governor Eliot Spitzer look good.

At least he just said, "I'm sorry."

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;