OTTAWA - The worm has turned on a second Conservative cabinet minister over an airport security impasse -- this one fuelled by tequila.
Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn issued a statement Friday apologizing "to those I could have offended" following reports he berated airport staff in Ottawa after losing a bottle of Mexican firewater to security screeners.
The bottle exceeded the 100 millilitre limit for liquids that passengers are permitted to carry on to flights.
"Since I had to leave the bottle behind, I asked that it be destroyed," Blackburn said in a statement released by his office.
"At no point did I request preferential treatment; it's not in my nature. Granted, I was definitely upset at what happened, and I apologize to those I could have offended."
The incident occurred Feb. 23, only four days after junior Conservative cabinet minister Helena Guergis called Prince Edward Island a "hell hole" during a boot-tossing tantrum at airport security in Charlottetown. She, too, subsequently issued a public apology.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, asked about the incidents during a stop in Brandon, Man., said "when people make mistakes, we expect apologies" and those have been forthcoming.
"I think we should accept those apologies and move to more important issues."
Opposition critics, however, are pouncing on the incidents as illustrations of what they say is an emerging sense of Tory entitlement.
"Why is there one set of rules for the Conservative team and another set of rules for everyone else?" Liberal MP David McGuinty thundered in the half-empty House of Commons.
Pierre Paquette of the Bloc Quebecois decried "the hypocrisy of the government who on one hand says citizens must comply with the rules, to the law, and on the other hand wants to have free passes."
While Blackburn's statement said he "complied unequivocally" with airport security, it also corroborated media reports that he became upset when security staff refused to empty the tequila bottle in his presence.
"Through his actions, the minister insinuated that they would confiscate his precious tequila and drink it," Liberal MP Rob Oliphant said in the House of Commons.
"That is insulting; it is disrespectful."
"Why didn't he just ask for the bottle to be cracked open and start having tequila shots together with the security guards?" McGuinty said following question period. "I mean, this is not serious."
For the record, the Canadian Air Transport Authority says all confiscated booze -- opened and unopened -- is destroyed.
Conservative backbencher Rick Dykstra acknowledged there are lessons to be learned from the encounters.
"Look, I certainly wish that we would all as members, you know, act similarly in terms of the way we treat airport staff," he told reporters. "Obviously this is quite a wake-up reminder to all of us that we need to respect individuals who are working at airports."
