Oh, man. I guess I'm the only one who choked on my coffee when I heard that joke. It's actually pretty funny... or, at least, it will be in a year or so... I remember a comedian joking about 9/11 a few months later, and somebody in the audience yelled out "Too soon!"

I'm inclined to let it slide. I've heard some real sick (no pun intended) humour from doctors and nurses. They say that kind of humour helps them deal with the gravity of the content of the profession. Maybe Ritz was trying the same thing?

"There's the campaign bus, Mr. Ritz. It's your time to go under it."

It was a funny quip but given the importance of the circumstances and the Ritz' ultimate responsibility for the system that is to protect us from such things, he has so severely undermined the public trust in his commitment and ability to deal with the problem that surely he must be turfed.

Harper's message to the Canadian people; "We tolerate idiots being in charge of semi-important things like your health and safety. Get over it; it's not like it's about oil or anything!"

“If you behave and you're sober and there's no problems and if you don't do a sit down and whatever, I don't care,” said Mr. Cannon's assistant Darlene Lannigan to Mr. Matchewan. She then added: “One of them showed up the other day and was drinking.”

“Are you calling me an alcoholic?” replied Mr. Matchewan.

“I'm not calling you an alcoholic. No. It was just to say that you're in a federal office. If you're coming in to negotiate, I expect, there's [decorum] that has to be respected,” said Ms. Lannigan.

Oh, my god. I... I don't know what to say. I wish that people like that... weren't people like that.

Although that 'scandal-map' is hilarious.

Bah, doesn't bother me. Then again, I laughed at 9/11 jokes made the day OF the attacks. People are just too frakking sensitive about every piddly thing whether it directly affects them of not nowadays. It makes people feel good about themselves when they can say "I cannot believe he said that!!!"..

And as this joke was made during a conference call with subordinates, obviously the wrong subordinates, one can only assume Mr. Ritz didn't read his crowd well. Thats his biggest oops, because seriously, most of us know full well that when in a circle of trustworty friends, sensitive things are often joked about that are not said aloud in amongst the masses. Big oops, not worth firing over.

Like Renee I actually found the cold cuts joke kind of funny.

Unlinke Alan, I found the Wayne Easter joke in really bad taste. I thought the Easter joke particularly bad, not because he was wishing Easter had died, because everyone knows he wasn't really doing that, but because while Ritz knew Easter was fine, he was just being told that someone else had actually died, and "wishing" it was Easter belittled the very real death that had just occurred.

As to Sean's comments, yes, Ritz probably could have made those jokes in private amongst friends, but he was not in private and not amongst friends. He was on a conference call, and therefore at work with colleagues, and not necessarily colleagues he knew well - there were 30 people on the call, senior civil servants, including the deputy minister of health. In short - Not appropriate for the situation.

If this had been one of those situations where a live mike picked up a private conversation, or someone leaked a private e-mail, or something else of that nature then I would say, fine, we all know these kind of things get said in private. The problem is not knowing, or caring, or having enough sense, for the difference between private and public.

He deserves to be fired.

Gallows humour pales as compared to accusations of anti-semitism.
The question must be, in regard to the alleged exodus of Israely personel in the weeks prior to 911...
Is it true?
Don Hallam.

[/twilight zone]