Casting Stones

I woke this morning to an e-mail from Globe and Mail journalist Brent Jang letting me know that an article that he had written about my role as a private investigator in the Westjet - Air Canada feud was in print today. He also let me know that there was an extensive article on the Commissioner of the RCMP and his conflicting testimonies before the Parliamentary public safety and security committee.

When I bought the paper I was struck by the irony of my photograph being on the front page with the Commissioner. For those who know my public story with the RCMP, it would be safe to say that Commissioner Zaccardelli was highly influential in my forced resignation from the RCMP in 2002. So influential, that the Federal Court of Canada criticized his innapropriate involvement in my case as the Commissioner and overturned the decision, re-instating me to the RCMP.

When speaking with a friend from the media this morning, I was asked my thoughts on what is happening within the RCMP and in particular with the scrutiny that Mr. Zaccardelli is facing at the moment.

I have been honest about my own shortcomings on this blog, with nothing to hide or be ashamed of on my own journey. So, in all honesty I wanted to say, "what goes around comes around." Yet, I had to reflect at how cheap and vindictive this attitude is and could be if I were to allow it to fester into vengeful bitterness.

Taking the time to reflect, and yes, pray about this situation I am able to come to a place of empathy for the Commissioner. It is evident that indeed he seems to have been caught in the embarassing position of giving contradictory evidence before the committee. Facing increasing demands for his resignation, and a distancing of allegiance from the Prime Minister, it would seem that his fate is sealed.

But, what to do with how one feels about this? Examining the heart, mind and soul of the human condition, including my own, I am struck by how gleeful we can become when another person is held to account for their perhaps, less than noble actions, particularly if they have hurt us personally. Was Mr. Zaccardelli's actions all that different from the modus operandi of many public figures, business leaders, or anyone else for that matter?

Deceit, by way of omission or commission, is more common than most of us are even aware. Why do we become so indignant at the deception of others when we cannot see the deception that may be lurking in our own lives? I wonder if the indignancy of many of the more vocal MP's towards the Commissioner, comes more from a place of political point scoring than it does from a deep moral sense of right and wrong?

" Where do moral absolutes come from?" I asked my humanist friend this morning. " That's a good question" she replied. If moral absolutes do not come from God, then we are left with an individualistic understanding of right and wrong ( in other words we become our own gods) or we are at the mercy of the whims of the masses ( shaped by the more powerful, and possibly corrupt leaders of society.) Either way, moral right and wrong becomes fuzzy and subjective, and we justify, hide, deflect, bully, or use euphemisms to describe our behaviour.

I am all for experiencing the life giving grace of the consequences of our own actions. Painful as these consequences may be, they are often the springboard to new life and purpose if one slows down long enough to examine their own behaviour and wrestle with the nagging question of why we do what we do. Consequences can take place, however, without condemnation and villification.

Mr. Zaccardelli will be experiencing the consequences of his apparent misleadings to the committee. The instructions of my own moral compass, however, tells me that I cannot be happy about this. Rather I am called to have empathy and to pray for him. I much prefer this Way than the easier path that comes from the inclinations of my own dark side to condemn and take pleasure in his situation.

We all deserve empathy when coming face to face with the natural consequences of our behaviours. We all need to reflect that perhaps, if faced with the same pressures, circumstances, and life situation, that our own actions may not be that far off from those that we would be tempted to condemn. I prefer not to cast stones. In fact, if I were to be truthful, I can't.