Unrepentant

 Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love; 
according to your abundant mercy 

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin.

                               King David Psalm 51

 Four Canadian senators of the 105 sitting in the Upper House have been ordered to repay a total of more than half a million dollars in expense money they wrongfully claimed. Those monies included erroneous travel expenses and reimbursement for housing costs which didn't fit within the senate guidelines. These are the facts, although the factual information doesn't really tell the sordid story of cover-up and denial attached to the different situations. We need to remember that scrutiny revealed that less than four percent of senators were guilty of impropriety and one in particular stuck in our collective craws, that of the secret bail-out of Mike Duffy.


I did shake my head last week at Pamela Wallin's unrepentant repayment of her illegal claims. She fulminated that the way she was treated was unfair. This from the Toronto Star:

But she slammed the outside audit firm of Deloitte for sloppy accounting and an internal senate committee that concluded she was not entitled to claim certain travel expenses and, she said, “succumbed to a ‘lynch mob’ mentality.”

Wallin was not required to refund the most in unjustified claims. That honour went to Marc Harbin, a liberal who has decided to retire from the Senate after repaying nearly a quarter million. And she has not been told to quit the Senate and assures us she won't. In most work settings Ms Wallin would be fired, with cause. The Deloitte firm is non-partisan, so where is the lynch mob?

There are times in life when we need to be honest with ourselves and realize that we are not "entitled to our entitlements" as a defiant cabinet minister once told us. Someone has pointed out that this is yet another example of a wealthy white person who has no sense of reality about their wrongdoing.

In our Christian faith we are invited to confess our sins, a "coming clean" of our frailties and shortcomings. If we repent we can be forgiven and begin again. It doesn't matter if we are the office cleaner or royalty, we all need to admit our faults. Perhaps Ms. Wallin needs to do some bible study.

What was your reaction to Ms. Wallin's statement? How about this whole mess?