Canadian Bureaucrats Like Porn at Work Too

CANADA—Americans get outraged at the perennial reports cataloging the civil servants who would rather surf for porn than work, but we are not alone in that regard. In Canada, the dull throb of the bureaucrat’s hum-drum existence also leads some to fall prey to the ubiquitous temptation to either look at porn sites or [fill in the blank] at work. According to the Toronto Sun, “Between 2006 and 2009, [Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)] launched 46 investigations of employees suspected of inappropriate computer use such as participating in online chats, visiting dating sites and viewing pornography.” Shockingly [or not], eight of the cases involved "accessing explicit sites for extended periods of time" that could have been seen by nearby fellow employees, the paper also reported. While there was no information about how many of the miscreants ended up losing their jobs, employees who misuse work computers have been let go. Anticipating bad publicity from the revelations, agency officials attempted to head off overreaction by reminding the public that the eight cases of extreme and irresponsible porn surfing come from a workforce of 11,000. That is a miserly percentage of lethargic bureaucrats, to be sure, indicating something is clearly amiss in Canada.