Harper hires ex-con

[tuvor]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has hired on as an adviser a former lawyer who was disbarred, convicted of theft and sentenced to 18 months in jail in the early 1980s for stealing money from clients of his law firm.

In 1982, Bruce Carson pleaded guilty to two counts of theft over $200, after forging the signatures of two clients and stealing almost $20,000. He was 37 at the time.

Soon after he was fired by the Ottawa law firm Soloway Wright in 1980, Carson began working for the federal government, a newspaper report at the time states.

He has held several positions on Parliament Hill since then, including roles with former PMs Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark and as policy adviser to the Conservative caucus, during which he appeared before a Senate committee to answer a question on legislation around ethics in the workplace.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2006/05/12/1576548-sun.html

[Bragi]

1. Politics is a tough business to be in

I can't help but note that the criminal activity that occasions this report took place a quarter century ago. If the person named in the report has lived an exemplary life since 1982 (other than being a Conservative), then in my view, this story is pure muck, and nothing more.

The appearance of this news report will, nonetheless, do real harm to the prospects of the person named, and also, in maybe even a small way, to the prospects of anyone else who has lived a life of rectitude after serving a sentence for a crime.

I think society sells itself short when it accepts the view that, whatever else someone does in life, that if they are ever convicted of a criminal offense, then from then on, they will always be, as the subject line here reads, "ex-cons".

My concern with this is that if everyone who has served time and straightened out thought that society sees them only as ex-cons, and/or if convicts currrently serving senteneces were to believe that this is their inescapable future, then it is hard to imagine how the outcome could be good for anybody.

- B