In a year in which life has been turned upside down, putting together a list of the most shameful characters and events of the past twelve months is no easy task.

Where to even begin? The big ones are too horribly obvious: the terrible terrorist attacks of September 11 and the violence and repression that’s been employed to avenge them; the women-hating Taliban regime; and, of course, the big baddie himself, Osama bin Laden.

As for the other dreadful deeds and corrupt characters of 2001, I present my highly subjective list of inductees to the Hall of Shame.

Dubya: For a president who may not have been elected, George W. Bush, sure has made an impact. After a brief respite spent enjoying the world’s support and sympathy, he’s returned to his old “my way or the highway”stance. Pre-September 11, he nixed the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases, denounced the establishment of a permanent international war crimes court and stepped back from an international ban on biological weapons. Now, as he steps up the U.S.-led war on terrorism, he has expressed his unwillingness to participate in global relief efforts to rebuild a war-demolished Afghanistan and has withdrawn his nation from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

The Media: The war in Afghanistan has inspired many journalists to their finest work this year, often putting them at great personal and professional risk to rout out the truth and provide balanced coverage.

Then there are the other guys. What began as overwrought patriotism deteriorated quickly into war propaganda — from the stars and stripes station logos and Dan Rather’s weepy Letterman appearance, to CNN’s reluctance to run news about civilian casualties in Afghanistan and a widespread suppression of voices of dissent. Then there’s one of the biggest media embarrassments of them all: The Fox News Network decision to send an armed Geraldo Rivera to Afghanistan as a foreign correspondent.

Closer to home, the Asper family of CanWest Global Communications has done the impossible. With its iron-fisted control on content and arrogant demands for absolute employee loyalty (“gossiping”is grounds for dismissal), it’s made Conrad Black look positively liberal.

Men of the People — Tom Wappell and Ralph Klein: Earlier this year, the MP from Scarborough sent a poison pen letter to a blind, 81-year-old war veteran who had written to him for assistance, telling the man that he’s not interested in helping someone who didn’t vote for him. A few months later, the Alberta premier got liquored up and visited a shelter where he badgered homeless men “to get a job.”

Global Warming: It’s heating up in Canada and Japan, it’s getting colder in India and Bolivia. Weather has gone haywire as the planet’s average temperature continues its century-long upward trend. Most of the world’s environmental experts are now urging governments and industry to take immediate and drastic action on global warming, which is caused by fossil fuel use.

Lester Brown, of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington D.C., warned the world’s media earlier this month that curbs on fossil-fuel use have to be put in place “before climate change spirals out of control.”

Bad Lieutenants: After abandoning a First Nations man named Darrel Night on the outskirts of Saskatoon in freezing weather last January, now-ex police officers Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson requested that they be tried in an aboriginal sentencing circle (the request was ultimately denied). In response to the men’s claim that the circle would heal the community, Lawrence Joseph, a vice-chief with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, noted: “It’s strange, it’s pathetic, it’s a slap in the face.”

Lifetime Achievement Award: Even as his leadership comes to an end, lame-duck Premier Mike Harris announced plans to privatize Hydro One, deregulate university tuitions and slash public spending.

Some other highlights of Harris years:

  • 1995: Welfare cut by 22 per cent; aboriginal protester Dudley George killed by provincial police.
  • 1996: Thousands of civil servants walk out over a contract dispute.
  • 1997: A series of teacher walkouts and strikes begin in response to a controversial education bill that allows the provincial government to control class size, prep time and length of school day and year; province downloads financial responsibility for transit, public health and social housing onto municipalities.
  • 1999: Panhandlers and squeegee kids become targets of provincial crackdown.
  • 2000: Seven residents of Walkerton die and more than 2,000 become ill from E. coli contaminated water; 60-hour work week implemented; mandatory drug testing plan for welfare recipients introduced.
  • 2001: Budget is announced with a tax credit for private school tuition.