Satire

Its Tuesday, December 11th.

Before being sentenced to six and a half years in jail, Conrad Black - former CEO of Hollinger International - expressed regret for the loss suffered by the company's shareholders.

Currently, Black regrets that Hollinger shareholders may never find a suitable replacement for his worship.

This is The Current.

Remorse - The law

According to reports, Conrad Black showed little emotion when he was sentenced to six and a half years in jail for fraud and obstruction of justice. Lord Black did make a brief statement right before the sentencing, expressing regret for the loss suffered by Hollinger International shareholders, and for the hardship the trial caused his family members. By his standards, it was a surprising gesture of contrition, especially compared to the defiant tone he struck in a recent interview with the BBC (note: audio link).

Prosecutors filed that interview as evidence, arguing Lord Black should be given a longer sentence because of the "stunning lack of remorse" he displayed in the interview.

Under very different circumstances, Robert Latimer also found himself paying a price for his lack of remorse. He lost his bid for day parole ten years after he was convicted of murdering his severely disabled 12-year-old daughter Tracey. The National Parole Board cited his lack of insight into his actions as a major reason for turning down his application.

The Current decided to ask why we put such a high value on remorse and the role it plays in determining a criminal's punishment. For his thoughts on those questions, we were joined by Julian Roberts, a Professor of Criminology in the Faculty of Law at Oxford University.

Remorse - Psychiatrist

Our legal system doesn't exist in a vacuum. It reflects -- or at least it's supposed to reflect -- our values as a society, so The Current hit the streets of Toronto to ask about the value of remorse.

According to Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, remorse is a crucially important emotion for both individuals and society as a whole. Jordan Peterson spoke to us from his home in Toronto.

Listen to The Current:Part 1

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 2


Gitmo Prosecutor

When Colonel Morris Davis laid charges against Omar Khadr last February, he was a true believer. As the chief prosecutor at the U.S. military commissions, he was a vocal supporter of what his government was doing at Guantanamo Bay. In fact, when he wasn't prosecuting cases there, Colonel Morris traveled across the United States, preaching about the humane living conditions detainees enjoyed and the strong legal foundation of the commissions that would prosecute them.

But today, Colonel Morris is telling a different story. He is now the former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay. He resigned to protest the undue political pressure he says he was feeling from the Pentagon. And he isn't alone. Colonel Morris is the latest in a growing line of military officials who have stepped down over concerns about how the United States is interrogating and prosecuting its so-called enemy combatants.

Colonel Morris Davis spoke to us from Washington.

Listen to The Current:Part 2

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 3

Overseas Tutors - Student and Tutor

Increasingly, the end of the school day doesn't mean the end of lessons and books.

In its annual "Survey of Canadian Attitudes Toward Learning," the Canadian Council on Learning found that more than one million Canadian students have tutors, something they chalked up to "intensive parenting." But increasingly, those students are hiring tutors to work with them over the internet from halfway around the world. On-line tutoring companies are popping up all over the place. They employ people in India to tutor students all over the world, including China, Great Britain, the United States and Canada.

Muniba Khan is a grade 12 student in Toronto, and is just one of a thousand Canadians who have signed on with a company called TutorVista, whose tutors are based in India.

Overseas Tutor - Tutoring Company

To tell us more about how TutorVista works, we were joined from Bangalore by K. Ganesh, founder of TutorVista.


Overseas Tutors - Canadian Teachers Federation

For her thoughts on this tutoring trend, we were joined from Ottawa by Emily Noble.
She's the President of the Canadian Teachers' Federation.


Last Word - Student Howlers

We closed the show with a few more words from Conrad Black, who was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for fraud and obstruction of justice. Earlier in the show we played part of an interview Lord Black gave to the BBC, and we finished with one more piece of that interview, in which he talkedabout about justice, the future, and historical reckoning.

Listen to The Current:Part 3

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

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