For not tugging his forelock in the presence of a former Harper mouthpiece who is now heading up the Canada Olympic Committee solely on merit, popular CTV journalist and host of Power Play Don Martin appears to have been kicked off the air.

Apparently the diminutive Dimitri Soudas couldn’t take a little mild banter—Martin asked his spouse companion, Conservative MP Eve Adams, “what are you doing with this guy?” and Soudas, manifesting classic short-man syndrome, took offence and threatened to go to Martin’s boss George Cope if he didn’t show him more respect.

An initial report by the Toronto Sun that he was suspended for telling both Soudas and his boss to “f-ck themselves” has now been dismissed as a “pack of lies.” Let’s be charitable here: perhaps the retailer of the aforesaid pack, former journalist David Akin, had merely over-indulged a little, even if Sun News hacks are notorious for hallucinating at the best of times.

Immediately after pushing this porky, duly hedged with “alleged” this and “allegedly” that, Akin had the face to beg for the actual facts on Twitter, asking the Globe & Mail’s online political editor Stephen Wicary and Ottawa bureau chief John Ibbitson for the straight dope.

Meanwhile, an evidently tired and emotional Ryan Sparrow weighed in on another front by no coincidence whatsoever, flinging insults at Wicary and Ottawa Citizen columnist Dan Gardner.

In any case, Martin has been disappeared, we assume by CTV, although at this stage in the evolution of Harperia it could just as easily have been plainclothes RCMP in sunglasses and a Jeep Cherokee taking him to the outskirts of town for interrogation and a shallow grave.

Let me at this point offer my congratulations to Justin Trudeau for his decisive win over the Brazman. The sourness on display from all quarters of the Right last night added considerably to my pleasure. I hereby offer my own challenge to Mike Duffy for a spot on the card next year.