Honesty is the best policy.
That old adage is debatable depending on whether you are a Wall Street banker or a person with a conscience.
Brian Foster, a Porcupine Plain farmer who accidentally burned down a historic train bridge last week, is apparently the latter. Braving the potential consequences of criminal charges, financial liability and scorn from the local community, which is lamenting the loss of a local landmark, Foster owned up to inadvertently starting the blaze while trying to clear walking paths on his land.
RCMP and CN Police investigations concluded the origin of the fire was not nefarious and Foster will not face criminal charges.
The financial implications are yet unclear. There was definitely loss of property, but the owner, CN, had long since abandoned the bridge. And there remains the question of whether he followed the local rules for controlled burns, but his conscience is clear.
One has to wonder, though, whether he would have received the same free pass if he had not come forward and a police investigation led to his identity instead. I’ve spent enough time in courtrooms to know trying to hide your involvement in a possible crime and/or lying to police, is often used against people in legal proceedings.
If you had nothing to feel guilty about, the argument goes, why would you hide it?
Of course, human behaviour is unpredictable, but there is definitely leniency built into the system for honesty.
People who are cooperative with police, who enter early guilty pleas, who demonstrate remorse or regret, get credit. We call these mitigating circumstances
I hear people complain all the time about people getting reduced sentences on those grounds, but it is a sound principle of justice.
It is about taking responsibility for your actions.
Not giving people due credit for that is predicated on the idea that it is easy to do. If it is easy for you, you are a very lucky person because it can be very painful and humbling.
Of course, if it’s easy or you’ve never had to take responsibility for a major screw-up you may also be in denial. It is easy to blame others, or unfavourable circumstances, or external forces, but that is not conducive to personal growth.
Taking responsibility is more than saying you’re sorry. It is about taking action to change the underlying issues that led to your screw-up in the first place.
In the case of our bridge fire starter, there are some good indications in his apology that he is sincere. He notes, for example, that he was careless. He will unlikely be careless like that again, and if he is, people will likely be less sympathetic.
For those who find themselves before the courts, taking responsibility can be the first step to avoiding being back again once they have served their sentence.
As an example, more often than not, alcohol and/or drugs are elements of crimes before the courts. Alcohol and/or drug abuse are more often than not symptoms of underlying issues for which people need help. Accepting responsibility is the first step in getting that help.
Of course, there are those who are disingenuous about taking responsibility. Judges, for the most part, are very good at weeding these out from the truly remorseful. And the system itself is designed to do so. There are escalating consequences for repeat offenders.
Honesty really is the best policy even just for your own piece of mind. Unless you’re a psychopath, but I already mentioned Wall Street earlier.
