Questions Galore! Answers? Not So Much

I just can't get my head wrapped around the MacLean's article suggesting 53% of Canadian students cheat. The implications boggle the mind.

Does it mean more than half the credentials certified by various universities may not be valid? That people practicing in various professions may not be competent? That certificates displayed in many professional offices may not be worth the vellum upon which they are printed?

If it is true, why is that not a national scandal?

I took a university course once in an outreach program. It was utterly useless. The professor teaching it took credit for its creation. That made sense because he was a complete jackass. Someone else who does some university teaching himself advised me “If the object is to get the credit, just give him what he wants, Mother. He's the one with the power.”

I’ve often found myself amazed at what's offered on T.V. as professional journalism. On one news program, a police officer unrolled a tool kit. Each item was held for a close-up and its function explained. It was a kit for the procurement of an abortion.

What useful purpose could that have served? Who authorized it? Policing is a public service.

Would tax-payers be responsible for the dissemination of this particular information?

Just recently, Evan Solomon did something similar on CBC with a police demonstration on how simple it is to break into a locked vehicle. The tool was produced, inserted between a car door and window and Bingo! the deed was done.

If the criminal class was the target audience, the ratings could feasibly have increased. I can't imagine how any other part of the community would benefit.


Recently, the head honcho of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has had to resign. A Canadian citizen found himself in a Syrian jail and subjected to torture. The RCMP may not have been without blame.

On another matter, the RCMP launched an investigation of a so-called leak in the midst of an election. We have learned it was unwarranted. It probably caused the defeat of a government and the election of another which does not enjoy the confidence of a majority.

Within the last decade, a letter from the RCMP mailed to a Swiss Bank asked for evidence against a former Prime Minister. That bungle resulted in millions of dollars of tax-payers money being paid in a damage settlement out of court.

On television, the day after his resignation, RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli give a spirited and
emotional defense of his reputation, in a press conference, in a public facility.

He referred to himself as a poor little immigrant kid who made good.

The press applauded.

Does that not make you wonder - who is watching the store?