Unconvincing case for new police officer hire

Re: Ottawa, give this new police officer a break, Aug. 13

In what world of fantasy do you reside, Mr. Dawson?

While agreeing it is the chief who does the hiring, if background checks are ignored, why do we have them?

I’ll give a parallel example. Let’s say this check was to work as a volunteer coach that included driving children to games. With so many traffic violations, would you want your kids in his car? Yet we should accept Chief Charles Bordeleau’s call that he is acceptable, given other factors.

Dawson then argues that looking at the overall picture, the candidate’s “good” outweighs the bad. If that argument had merit, why have we rescinded the Order of Canada from people who earned it for good, admirable and positive activities only to later commit one faux pas, however egregious it might be? Why is their previous meritorious work not exculpatory?

Finally, he argues the controversy is “entirely not his fault.” Excuse me Mr. Dawson. It is entirely his fault. Neither you nor I nor anyone else committed the violations for which the background check found him unsuitable. He did, which seems to me to be his fault!

I am with the majority of writers. This hiring is pure opportunism and pandering to special interests.

Bordeleau blew it — and all his justification to the contrary will not convince the majority of Ottawans. Mike Alain, Ottawa