Is invasion of privacy worse than a politician having a speech writer?

The Liberals should have been more charitable with regards to the allegedly plagiarised speech given five years ago by Conservative leader Stephen Harper. He is criticized for not using his own words – the speech was copied in part by a speech given a few days earlier by the Australian prime minister. The writer of the speech admits to being “overzealous” in his copying of the speech, but Stephen Harper was not aware of the plagiarism.

And now, this was scooped by The Tyee:

The couple are Jean Macintyre and her husband John, a retired judge of the B.C. Provincial Criminal Court. Jean Macintyre has for several years been the president of the North Vancouver-Seymour NDP Constituency Association.

As a longtime New Democrat, she’s working to promote her candidate Michael Charrois, and to defeat Liberal incumbent Don Bell.

Dumbfounded to see herself and her husband in the ad, Macintyre says the video clip was taken by one of their sons in a Lower Lonsdale coffee shop a couple of years ago. How it fell into the Liberals’ hands is a mystery to her—and to the son.

While the Conservatives are confessing to a plagiarism rap that would flunk them out of English 100, the Liberals may have to apologize to the Macintyres or perhaps face a charge of invasion of privacy.

The embarrassment never ends! It’s surreal, it’s almost like this is the United States.