Irene Mathyssen, the NDP MP for London-Fanshawe, is in a bit of hot water.

This afternoon on the floor of the House of Commons, Irene Mathyssen leveled some serious allegations at Conservative MP James Moore:

A Canadian MP was accused by the opposition Wednesday of looking at "soft porn" on his laptop computer in parliament the previous evening.

"There was an image of a scantily clad woman in very flimsy lingerie" on the computer of Parliamentary Secretary for Public Works James Moore, New Democrat MP Irene Mathyssen told reporters. "It was dark in color and she was a brunette."

"It was, I would say, not hard porn by any stretch," she said.

"I would describe it as soft porn, Playboy-type stuff ... But it was still inappropriate in the House of Commons. It reflects an attitude about women. It is an objectification of women that I find very, very concerning."

Earlier, Mathyssen rose on a point of order in the House to denounce Moore's actions as disrespectful to women.

Moore denied the allegation. "I don't have the faintest idea what my colleague is talking about," he said.

The speaker of the house dismissed Mathyssen's complaint, saying it was beyond his purview.

At the time, Mathyssen promised to pursue the issue further.

Mathyssen has great eyesight. Here is the seating arrangement in the House:

As you can see, Mathyssen sits three rows back and four rows over in seat 117. Certainly she could see Moore's desk from her vantage point (he is in 21), but she was nowhere near reading distance. And being able to clearly view a laptop screen at that distance and at that angle? Amazing. But then perhaps she has special powers when it comes to detecting the objectification of women at a distance:

Mathyssen is the chair of the NDP Women's Caucus. At 41%, the NDP caucus has the largest percentage of women of any in the House of Commons. Mathyssen is also the NDP critic for Housing and for the Status of Women and the vice-chair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

Well, I guess she needs her objectification sensors tuned, because Irene Mathyssen has had to retract her allegations against James Moore:

Just hours after alleging that a Tory MP had brought the honour of parliamentarians into question, a New Democrat MP is apologizing for her own political blunder.

The pictures that Mathyssen had seen -- and misinterpreted as improper -- were apparently just images of a friend.

CTV's David Akin said that he spoke with Moore Wednesday evening. He was told that Moore and Mathyssen have spoken since their exchange in the House and that Moore had explained that the pictures were of his girlfriend.

Akin said he was told that Mathyssen had accepted the explanation.

In a press release, the New Democrats said that "Ms. Mathyssen has accepted the explanation and offered her apologies."

I don't think that's good enough. James Moore has been deeply embarrassed by what has to be most public form of humiliation possible. The unproven allegations were read into the record of the House of Commons. He was cast into the role of some sort of leering thug. He was found guilty without a trial.

Mathyssen could have asked Moore first. She could have brought the issue up with the Conservative caucus, with the whip Jay Hill, who could have looked into the matter discreetly.

But instead, from what she thought she saw on a laptop screen from 20 feet or more away, she decided to humiliate James Moore.

No, an apology doesn't cut it.

I call for Irene Mathyssen to be sent to attend gender sensitivity training. During the training, she will be asked to learn that not all men are slavering dogs, and that all men deserve the benefit of the doubt. Men deserve to have the opportunity to explain their actions first, to face their accusers, and to be considered innocent until the preponderence of evidence proves otherwise.

She must learn that public humiliation is not the way we deal with an issue like this before the facts are known.

Indeed, she must learn that her own sense of righteous indignation is not a substitute for those facts that she seemed disinclined to seek out first.

When Irene Mathyssen learns to treat men as individuals deserving respect and consideration, then her apologies will mean something. As it is, it seems that Irene Mathyssen objectifies men, assuming all of them to be dumb rutting animals.

I don't what sort of men she's used to dealing with in the rank and file of the NDP, but that doesn't excuse the shabby treatment she visited on James Moore. Of course, she'll get away with just issuing an apology. Somehow people like her never seem to get what they deserve.

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