Archive for February, 2009

I was delighted to see that George Radwanski, the privacy commissioner whose expense accounts became public, was cleared of all charges. Every man should have his day in court and Radwanski certainly had his after six years of being a pariah.

In fact, Radwanski has been on the outs with society all the time I’ve known him, which is thirty-five years. When I was press secretary to Robert Stanfield in the 1970s, Radwanski was one of two journalists in the 150-member Parliamentary Press Gallery who stood apart and held independent views. The other was Bill Johnson, who as a bilingual Anglophone, explained Quebec to the rest of Canada.

The media of every era needs more such outsiders, people who don’t run with the herd. As privacy commissioner from 2000-2003, Radwanski tried to stop some of the RCMP surveillance activities he found particularly repugnant. It was this action he believes made him a target for investigation. For a bunch of reasons, the court found him innocent of all criminal charges.

What bothers me most in all of this was the court’s explanation that Radwanski’s entertainment budget was no more lavish than anyone else’s in Ottawa at the time. Just as I don’t like members of the media drinking each other’s bathwater, I don’t like bureaucrats eating each other’s foie gras. Especially on my tab. They say those halcyon days are gone. I hope so. The rest of the country has gone on a diet. Ottawa should, too.

We’re hoping to return to Florence for a holiday in April. If we do, first stop will be my favourite piece of art in all of Italy, Donatell’s David in the Bargello. To my mind, this beautiful piece of work from the fifteenth century, the first free-standing statue created since Roman times, is far superior to Michelangelo’s more famous David.

The latter is certainly bigger, a towering sixteen feet compared with Donatello’s five-foot version. As a result, Donatello’s work is more human in scope. You can go nose-to-nose with it, something impossible to do with Michelangelo’s overpowering marble. Moreover, I like the fact that Donatello’s bronze portrays victory, with Goliath’s severed head under David’s foot, rather than the misty-eyed youth by Michelangelo preparing for battle with his sling at the ready.

One element I want to see that I never previously noticed, and have only recently read about, is how Donatello made one of David’s little toes curl under the toe beside, supposedly to signify imperfection. This is not a god we’re admiring, it is but a man.

A final good reason to revisit David is that the work has just been restored using a laser treatment. It was lustrous when we last saw it; I can’t imagine the new glow from within. The Bargello has also created a copy, which is placed on a six-foot pediment, to demonstrate how David was originally displayed.

It makes my toes curl just thinking about it.