It was a lie, expert says.
herald.ns.ca
And for what the people thought : herald.ns.ca
'If the person has broken your trust once, then you sort of start worrying'
By Michael Lighthouse
Robert Chisholm's omission of a drunk-driving conviction in a leaders' survey constitutes a lie, says a philosophy professor who's written a book on lying.
"If at the time he knew that he had two convictions and he only mentioned the one - and lesser one - I would call that a lie," said Andre Gombay of the University of Toronto.
He said most people would say the NDP leader misled readers when he told a newspaper, which had asked if he'd "broken any laws," that he was once stopped for speeding at age 16.
The Daily News posed that query three weeks ago in a 20-question list answered by leaders of Nova Scotia's three major political parties. Mr. Chisholm has since admitted he was convicted of impaired driving at age 19.
Mr. Gombay said just because someone has been less than truthful in the past doesn't mean they can't be trusted.
However, he said Mr. Chisholm "made a mistake" by not being more forthcoming and could be perceived as being less trustworthy than he was previously.
"If your car has broken down once, you begin to distrust the engine. So if the person has broken your trust once, then you sort of start worrying."
Mr. Gombay, who wrote a book titled Lying, Now and Then, said "we lie only when we are supposed to talk seriously," not in joking situations. Mr. Chisholm's speeding-ticket response was from a light, entertaining questionnaire that largely ignored politics.
Asked to define a lie, Mr. Gombay said it's not a black-and-white issue.
"It's a tricky situation. A lie is when, in a serious situation, you try to make someone believe the contrary to what you believe. So, if you make people believe that you have only had this very minor driving conviction when, in fact, you believe the opposite - that is a lie."
Mr. Gombay's U of T colleague, Frank Cunningham, said there are clear differences between white lies and "damned lies." He said white lies "are a dime a dozen," but declined to categorize Mr. Chisholm's survey answer.
"I doubt that there's anybody in the country, political leader or not, who doesn't on occasion shade the truth," said Mr. Cunningham, who teaches political philosophy.
"In politics, lying about what your real political values and beliefs are - these are damned lies."
Mr. Cunningham said voters count on the media to expose damned lies, and he criticized journalists for spending too much time "trying to decide whether a political leader or somebody aspiring to politics has ever told any lie at all. "I'd like to see them going after the damned lies." |
