Chris Cardona and Joe Gerada: there is nothing new under the sun

Read this article in The New York Times from 1985. Canada’s Defence Minister and two of his aides go to a brothel while on official business in Germany. The Minister chats at the bar with a stripper while the aides go off with prostitutes.

A Canadian newspaper reports the story, quoting sources. Nobody asks for “proof”, “evidence”, “photographs” or “videos”. Nobody targets the journalist who reported the story or questions the newspaper’s sources and motives.

The Defence Minister speaks to his Prime Minister, makes a statement to parliament, says the report is full of “inaccuracies”, and then steps down without suing for libel or going after the journalists with an axe.

That was in Canada in 1985. Compare and contrast with the Maltese minister in a virtually identical story (but with far more details and more sleaze) in Malta in 2017.