Cheers & Jeers
Cheers: to vigilance. OK, so we’ve all probably groused once or twice about Motor Vehicle Registration (MVR), mostly about long waits — though to be fair, those wait times have diminished in the last year or two. But the staff working there do important work, and that was never more evident than last week, when it came to light in a news story that forged inspection certificates for school buses were red-flagged by sharp-eyed MVR employees. They recognized that chief mechanic Peter Roche, who’d signed them, did not have a valid driver’s licence at the time, as he was under a three-year impaired driving ban. (Each bus has to be road tested as part of the inspection process). MVR tipped off the police and Roche has been fined and is prohibited from conducting vehicle inspections.
Jeers: to no-shows. John Michael Corcoran was nowhere to be found last week when he was supposed to be sentenced in provincial court in St. John’s in a horrific case of animal cruelty. Corcoran pleaded guilty earlier this year to neglecting a dog so severely that the judge called its treatment a form of torture; the animal had been deprived of food and exercise for months, if not years before it died, the province’s chief veterinary officer said. Upon pleading guilty, Corcoran asked for lenience and apologized for what he did, saying the case had caused him to “lose everything.” Apparently, that includes the willingness to accept the punishment due him for his crime.
Jeers: to poor customer service. An Edmonton woman who boarded an Air Canada flight in Halifax last week with what an emergency room doctor had told her was a non-contagious rash, says she was summarily told to take her belongings and get off the plane. Jeanne Lehman told The Canadian Press a flight attendant told her, “‘You are contagious, I cannot leave you on the plane.’ I said, ‘Ma’am, not only am I not contagious, even if I was, this isn’t the way you should say it, loudly, telling everyone I am contagious.’” She was escorted to hospital and diagnosed with shingles and deemed safe to travel. Air Canada gave her food and hotel vouchers and a first-class seat the next day. Lehman is still waiting for an apology from the airline, and deserves one.
Cheers: to turning shades of red. On Wednesday night in Berlin, German police rushed to respond to a neighbour’s report that two men were abusing a halfnaked woman in an apartment. Turns out that one of the men was an instructor and the other man and woman a couple learning the Japanese art of erotic rope bondage. The couple didn’t get tied up in knots about it and asked the police if they’d like to join the class. The police politely declined, The Associated Press reported.