I too was disgusted by the treatment of Ben Johnson and how the Canadian media and sports establishment used him and hung him out to dry.

I bristle every time I read “disgraced Canadian Sprinter”, and they always use disgraced.

Ben gave Canadians – and Canadian politicians and sports establishment types exactly what they were looking for. They could not pile on fast enough to bask in the glory of the moment, and then rather than quietly slip off the bandwagon when it ended, knifed him in the back instead.

5 of the runners in that final have since been implicated in steroid scandals.

I don’t advocate what he did but to have Canada suplicate itself at the feet of the international community did nothing for us other than give us a black eye.

EM
Toronto

I’d say let this play out. It’s only been a day and Mr Commander is not a celebrity … yet.

I long for a time where all people with all colors will be treated equal, where Ben Johnson is not announced as a Canadian for he has won a Gold but few seconds letter announced as a man of Jamaican origin after the steroids show up. But again that is truly an illusion for it will never happen. Had this fella been black we would by now known what country he immigrated from, who is his father and mother where he was born and what school he went into, what he did while in school. And we would have been reminded over and over how he is black. I challenge you to tell me what you know about Colonel Russell Williams.

My condolences to the families of the four women, the entire population of Tweed, Brighton, Trenton, Bellville and our entire armed forces.

EM
Toronto

Actually Ward, there probably were indicators (f**king around) and his routine security evaluation  (if it was carried out properly) would have revealed something badly amiss.  I don’t know what went wrong in this situation but you are correct I suspect when you state “A subordinate who saw anything odd would know that his career would likely meet a fast end if he reported him.”.

That needs to change.

I will only say that and no more because of national security rules.  I’ve done this kind of stuff and I was not really concerned about my career.   “F**king around” was a really big deal in my day and Military Police wrote the reports regardless — with a lot more investigation.  Perhaps something has changed.  I don’t know because I’ve been out of the game a long time but you can believe me on this point.

“Heads are rolling” as I write.

Sorry people, just had to put that out there.

I had not heard of these two murders. It is a real tragedy what happened to them. I hope that the perpetrator, who ever he might be, is convicted.

I have not served in the military, but I would guess that there must be some sort of evaluations done to determine the mental fitness of those who serve, mental profiling if you will, which would expose undesirable mental characteristics.

Another thought while I’m here. This situation should have been caught during one of his routine security clearances. Why it wasn’t is far beyond my pay grade.