Michael Ignatieff: Under siege -The Independent London

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http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article340032.ece

By David Usborne
Published: 21 January 2006

"Michael Ignatieff really hasn't been having fun at all lately; he has had enough of the self-anointed experts..."If you believe the media,it's all over". Coming from Ignatieff, who for most of the 1980s and 1990s took his perch as one of the most prolific pontificators on Britain's comment pages and television sets, usually for the BBC,he has suddenly lost his sense of humour. A Canadian by birth - but with more than a dash of Russian blood, some of it even royal* - Ignatieff is himself running in Canada's election for the Liberal Party in an allegedly safe constituency and for all kinds of reasons - some of his making and others not, he is having a rather bad time.

-First he faced dissent from the local Liberal association, then anger from the local Ukrainian community on a charge of being "anti-Ukrainian", then a columnist in the Toronto Star said Ignatieff supported "torture lite"--believing Western nations can indulge in at least limited torture in interrogating terror suspects. Now, wherever Ignatieff goes on the trail these days, he is dogged by protesters dressed in orange jump-suits similar to those worn by inmates of Guantanamo Bay. As one of the left's lonely supporters of the Bush-Blair decision to invade Iraq, without UN support,for many grassroots Liberals in Canada, this was just too much. Ignatieff has admitted, however, that his stand on Iraq has given him sleepless nights because of what one man might think: his father, George.

If Canada has a self-image of a nation that has been a force for good in the world, then George Ignatieff can take much credit...

read the whole article here:

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article340032.ece

*Princess Natasha Mestchersky was married to Ignatieff's paternal grandfather, Count Paul Ignatieff, a close aide to the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his last education minister. Come the Russian Revolution, the Count escaped with his wife and five sons, and landed in a welcoming land of peace and freedom called Canada.

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1. Ignatieff is brilliant man

His writing on crime and punishment particularly affected my view of the criminal justice system in America. Too bad he was fooled by the Bushies.