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Student wins national painting prize
Corruption, scandal and political ethics Political scandals have been around for as long as politics have been around. That might explain the popularity of “Corruption, Scandal and Political Ethics,” a distance education course for credit toward certificates in leadership and in public policy and administration. It’s the second most SCANDALS popular online course offered at U TEND TO of G. So, what’s the first? A course ARISE WHEN on serial murders. “THERE’S TOO “How can I possibly top serial MUCH MONEY murders?” asks Prof. Geoff Stevens, FLOATING who has taught “Corruption, AROUND AND TOO LITTLE Scandal and Political Ethics” for the CONTROL past 10 years. The course draws OVER IT.” about 200 students per term. Topics include sex scandals and political privacy, the politics of lying, and patronage and conflict of interest, among others. Stevens says the course looks at “the dark side of politics” but it also sheds light on how governments deal with scandals. “There’s lots of lessons to learn about ethical standards and the way governments try to keep politics and politicians honest, and the extent to which they succeed or fail,” he says. He says the vast majority of politicians follow the rules, but scandals tend to arise when “there’s too 6 | PORTICO Spring 2016
much money floating around and too little control over it.” Canadian examples he covers in the course include the Pacific Scandal under John A. Macdonald and the sponsorship scandal under Jean Chrétien, both of which brought down their respective governments. Despite these and other examples, Canada ranks among the top 12 countries in the world for political honesty, he adds. Politicians who behave badly lose the public’s trust, but Stevens wants students to remember that not all of them are corrupt. “Most people are very well-intentioned and do their jobs honourably and honestly and are good stewards of the public trust and public tax funds,” he says. “There are always exceptions to this, and the exceptions are quite often instructive.” —SUSAN BUBAK
MFA student Patrick Cruz won the 2015 RBC Canadian Painting Competition.
ILLUSTRATION: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM: PHOTO: DANA BELLAMY/THE ONTARION
COURSEWORK
Patrick Cruz, a master of fine art (MFA) student, won the 2015 RBC Canadian Painting Competition. The $25,000 prize celebrates promising new Canadian visual artists. It’s the second year in a row that the winner has had a U of G connection. Cruz’s painting, Time allergy, was selected from more than 600 Canadian entries by a judging panel. The jury, made up of some of Canada’s top artists, art directors, curators and art critics, commended Cruz on his “brave approach, maximalist esthetic and wild graphic sensibility.” Cruz immigrated to Canada 10 years ago from the Philippines, and has said that the process inspired him to examine notions of diaspora, displacement and cultural identity. His painting will become part of RBC’s corporate art collection, which also includes a painting by U of G graduate Tiziana La Melia, the 2014 RBC winner.