I don’t suppose you noticed a certain lack of trust creeping into our world lately. As I scanned through Saturday’s paper, examples of why this might be the case leaped off every page.

When scandals break, I always wrestle with the question of, “Is this something new?” Our world is a goldfish bowl, particularly for anyone who is in a leadership role, and the cluster of news reporters and camera people permanently camped outside courts and police stations is evidence of that. Is it just that we are finding out more? Is the behavior nothing new, but is the scrutiny, with technology exposing more and more, bringing what was always there to our attention? Or, is it that at the same time, technology is allowing those who would betray our trust to expand their deceit to new areas?

In Nova Scotia, every news report lately is from the pack snarling at the heels of Bishop Raymond Lahey, disgraced prelate of the Antigonish Diocese, Chancellor of St. Francis Xavier University, caught two weeks ago entering Canada after what appears to have been a “sex-tourism” jaunt to southeast Asia, his laptop computer containing explicit photos of children engaged in sex acts. This betrayal of the trust of those he led was an extreme betrayal for many, since he had just recently brokered a settlement with young men abused by local priests in the past, acting as a person these victims could finally “trust”.

I grew up as a Catholic, and have a lot of respect for that church, but certainly, cries for openness at higher church levels appear to have gone unheeded. Shortly before his arrest, Bishop Lahey received permission from the Pope (though that might just mean an official at the Vatican) to step down and take a leave. We’re told that such a request would have to include an explanation to whoever immediately issued permission. Appeals to know just who was contacted, and what was written in the request have been ignored. Was the Bishop candid in his request, and those on the other end cooperative?

A quick scan of recent books about the issue of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church reads like a list of Mafia exposes, not like books about a church: Unholy Orders; Coming Out and Covering Up; Sacrilege; Perversion of Power; Sex, Priests and Secret Codes; The Silence We Keep. One book is subtitled, “The Catholic Church’s 2,000 Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse”, suggesting that this is far from new.

When I was growing up in Summerside, as a Catholic child, I learned that priests took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. It seemed a noble and sacred calling, but I often stood puzzled outside the rectory where a black Cadillac was parked for the use of priests. There seemed to be a contradiction there, and that continuing contradiction seems to explain why Bishop Lahey, after being able to afford numerous trips to southeast Asia, came into Canada with a laptop computer, four memory sticks, three memory cards, two cell phones, and a Blackberry or similar device.

So let’s drift away from the Catholic Church… another headline calls out, “Fleury admits that coach abused him”, as former NHL star Theoren Fleury releases a story of his hockey career, where he details being sexually abused with others by well-known junior hockey coach Graham James over an eleven year period.

The television news in my ear as I write proclaims France’s troubles with a sex scandal involving their Minister of Culture, Frederic Mitterrand, the nephew of former President Francois Mitterrand. The minister made headlines recently with his public defense of filmmaker Roman Polanski, now being charged with a thirty-year-old crime of having sex with a 13-year old girl. If that display of poor judgment wasn’t enough (probably not for the tolerance of France these days), the government minister just released an autobiography describing his personal adventures with boys in Thailand.

Another article indicates that a TD bank employee contacted who he thought was a 13-year old girl on the Internet (it was a police officer), made suggestions on activities they could share, and proceeded to demonstrate his role in some of them via web-cam. He is now petitioning a judge to get his Internet back, as he “needs it for work”. Is that a fact, TD?

This lack of trust is certainly unusual coming from someone working at a financial institution. I mean, we all trust them, don’t we? Another headline from that field announces “13-year sentence for bilking investors” and tells of Vincent Lacroix, sentenced for what was apparently the biggest financial scandal in Canadian history (outside of ATM charges, I presume). This kind of thing really destroys our trust in the banks and investment firms that we have grown to love in the last couple of years.

On the front page we find that the Deputy Sherriff in Dartmouth (who is acting Sherriff now), was caught buying cocaine. He allegedly intended to take the drugs into the Nova Scotia Corrections facility in Dartmouth, an institution known for strangely having plenty of drugs on the inside (well, at least one reason is now known). This story comes only months after a former Crown Attorney, Anne Calder, was caught attempting to take drugs in to her jailed client during an attorney visit. Why?

I could say, “Where does it end?” But, obviously it doesn’t.

While I don’t like dabbling in “conspiracy theory”—there’s a danger in seeing a demon behind every tree– lately I’m getting emailed theories pointing out the curious relationships among our H1N1 Influenza, the generated media panic about it, and the fantastic windfalls for the limited drug companies providing anti-viral drugs and vaccines. Other email scandal sheets make much about the money being made from Green technologies for a Global Warming that may or may not be a normal cycle in the history of the planet. I wonder…

Gee, am I losing my Trust?
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