The only absurdity taking place is the Windsor Star running Liberal Party of Canada ads disguised as opinion pieces by Lloyd Brown-John, professor emeritus, University of Windsor.
At the very least, when the Star runs one of these earned media bits for the Liberal Party, they could properly identify Mr. Brown-John's complete resume.
If there is anything "insidious" going on, it's allowing these sort of attack pieces to continue, cloaked in the mantle of academic analysis.