Former advisor to PM OK with people watching child porn

Noted Conservative political commentator Tom Flanagan enraged a group of students in Alberta Wednesday evening by standing up for a persecuted group of Canadians — viewers of child pornography.

In a tangential moment during a discussion on aboriginal issues at the University of Lethbridge, Flanagan said he supported the right to watch child pornography because it didn't cause harm to anyone.

Flanagan is a former adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and currently a politics professor at the University of Calgary.

“I certainly have no sympathy for child molesters, but I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures," Flanagan said, as captured in a video posted to YouTube.

"It is a real issue of personal liberty. To what extent do we put people in jail for doing something for which they do not harm another person."

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Flanagan, who captained the federal Conservatives election campaign in 2004, is known for holding controversial opinions. He published a book suggesting First Nations members should embrace assimilation and said they were merely the “first immigrants” to Canada.

During a 2009 talk at the University of Manitoba, Flanagan expressed his thoughts on child pornography as “just pictures.” He did not expand on the opinion at the time.

The idea that viewing child pornography doesn't hurt anyone else is a load of garbage, of course.

Studies into child pornography show that the majority of children who appear in the videos have been abducted or physically forced to participate. The act can have long-lasting debilitating physical, social and psychological impacts on the children.

Considering the videos are purposefully created for others to watch, distributors and collectors of child pornography should, and are, considered partially culpable for its creation.

Canadian laws prohibit the creation, possession and distribution of child pornography for just that reason.

Still, Flanagan's reasoning appears to have some support.

A New York appeals court ruled last year that simply viewing child pornography was not a crime in that state, absent evidence that the material was being collected or saved in some way.

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Flanagan said he has never viewed child pornography, but was on the mailing list of the North American Man Boy Love Association for a couple of years.

While he made it clear his opinion was not shared by the Conservative government, it still is unlike to wash well with his ilk.

Flanagan last captured the public’s attention by bizarrely wearing a massive fur coat during an appearance on CBC's Power & Politics.

At the time, the public dismissed Flanagan as a joke. This time, he should be dismissed as something much worse.