Diplomats behaving badly abroad

OTTAWA BUREAU, SUN MEDIA ^ | February 22, 2006 | KATHLEEN HARRIS

[ferri]

A scuffle over a 12-gauge shotgun and an angry outburst that ended with a shattered car window are among the alleged misdeeds committed by Canadian diplomats abroad.

Heavily censored documents obtained by Sun Media under Access to Information also show a diplomat was accused of assaulting a French woman who had a "suspicious, although ultimately authentic" passport at the Johannesburg airport.

[ferri]

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[fanfan]

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[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Some diplomats are career snivel servants; others political hacks with patronage appointments. Both are above the law; but, I would guess that the former tend to be better behaved than the latter.

[Non-Sequitur]

A scuffle over a 12-gauge shotgun and an angry outburst that ended with a shattered car window...

Sounds like a Dick Cheney hunting party.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

You're correct -- it created a big kerfuffle here. The diplomat scooted back to Russia under immunity -- but they nailed him over there. He served time in a Russian prison -- which probably meant that he was punished a lot harder than he would have been if he had stayed here.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Thanks -- we moved here from the far north a few years ago. Butchart gardens was one of the attractions -- along with the ocean, and mild winters.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

He killed a woman & got four years for it, I believe. Probably about what he would have gotten in Canada. There was a lot of diplomatic pressure involved; so I suspect that the Russians took action for political purposes as much as anything. They also probably wanted to send a strong message to the rest of their diplomatic corps -- such behaviour doesn't help their world image.

Kerfuffle is a pretty common word in Canada -- comes from the Scots. It can be a synomyn for hullabaloo -- but, it usually implies more chaotic activity. If used in the context of a hockey game, "a bit of a kerfuffle" would imply some pushing and shoving and maybe dropped gloves -- but no serious penalties.